To both sides of the Moore issue: Stop insulting our intelligence

Both Roy Moore and his newest accusers, along with his supporters and detractors are making claims that truly insult our intelligence. The problem with that is they are both giving ammunition to each other to support or destroy their own claims. So we won’t get to the truth here, only a conflicting mass of claims, counterclaims, and bullcrap.
Moore’s supporters claim none of the accusations are true at all–that Moore is a choir boy. But Moore himself contradicts that. His detractors claim he’s a dangerous pedophile. Both of those are wildly inaccurate. They insult our intelligence and harm voters’ ability to make informed decisions.

A pedophile?

The first four of Roy Moore’s accusers told a consistent, credible tale of a single man in his early 30s who had a penchant for dating young teenage women. This is quite troubling, but it does not establish the kind of pattern to call Moore a pedophile.
Pedophilia is a sickness that those who have it fight for life. There would be evidence of Moore pursuing teenagers after he got married. There’d be text conversations, photos, encounters beyond the ones in the late 70s-early 80s. Those who have called Moore a pedophile are really stretching. It is much more accurate to say that Moore’s perceptions of finding a wife in Alabama were skewed and creepy. Don’t insult our intelligence by putting a label on Moore that doesn’t stick.

Non-denials are confirmations

But Moore himself has left the door wide open on his morals. The alleged actions described with a 14-year-old demand a more careful and detailed explanation than the one Moore gave Sean Hannity when asked if it would be unusual for him to date a 17-year old: “Not generally, no.”
Moore said he wasn’t going to dispute if he did. A non-denial is a confirmation. That means he did in fact date girls over a decade younger than himself.
Don’t insult our intelligence by Moore claiming that he doesn’t remember who he dated. Only substance-addicted entertainers who hook up anonymously can reasonably claim that. Don’t claim that a restaurant where one accuser said Moore met her didn’t exist, because he knows it did. Don’t resort to lawyering when we need the truth.
About the yearbook: don’t insult our intelligence claiming Moore couldn’t have signed it because of handwriting style. Don’t claim it must have been lifted from court documents, but the “S” in the signature was missing while the “D.A.” was there. Don’t claim Moore doesn’t know if he signed it or not–he knows if he signed it. This isn’t a book signing event or a celebrity who gets asked to sign stuff all the time.
These claims have the same flavor as Bill Cosby and Bill Clinton–lots of weasel-words and attorney-speak with very little plain talk. They lead people to conclude that the accusers are right, when in fact the accusers almost certainly have a skewed or incorrect recollection of accounts. It’s impossible to square that when the Moore camp keeps coming up with refutable, even outrageous claims that insult our intelligence.

Political hit job

Of course this story is a political hit job, in the sense that the Washington Post saw it as important enough to devote significant resources to cover. Claims that WaPo held the story until Moore won the primary against Luther Strange are specious. Someone told the WaPo reporter to go see these women, and that someone I’m certain had a political agenda. But Strange’s campaign also knew the rumors about Moore–they’ve been floating around for over a decade–but could not confirm them.
WaPo did not hold the story until just before election day, releasing it on Dec. 11. Alabama does not have early voting, so this could have been a last-minute bombshell. Moore has plenty of time to defend himself. And other women have plenty of time to step forward.
I believe whoever fed the story to WaPo had a reason to see Moore fall. In that sense, yes it’s a political hit job. But it’s also an important story.
Don’t insult our intelligence by claiming this whole thing was engineered. If it was, they did it wrong–or they wrote a masterpiece. The truth is more likely that WaPo knew they had a hot story and published as soon as they had their sources and editorial approvals buttoned up.

Drip, drip

Since the original story, two more accusers have popped up, seemingly just in time to answer Moore’s strongest defence, that in his nearly 33-years of marriage, he hasn’t had any kind of claims of infidelity or harassment. So here they are, tearfully describing grabbing and “she could smell his breath.” But the character of one of these accusations is totally different than the previous group of teenagers.
Those young girls described a rather gentlemanly version of Moore, who asked mothers for permission, listened when they said “no,” and drove them home. Creepy? Oh yes; but the pattern of a violent predator? Not really. Or maybe he was fighting impulses and later in life gave in. But the “grab” accuser, Tina Johnson, was 28 at the time of the described incident. Again, perceptions matter. It’s almost impossible for Moore to fight this accusation because he waffled so badly on the previous ones.
Moore’s detractors, who want us to believe the yearbook signature is authentic (less-than-believable celeb lawyer Gloria Allred is representing that accuser), also want us to believe that none of these women have an agenda besides telling the truth. We know at least one of the women is active in the Democratic Party. As for Johnson, she very well may have some animus against Moore–but it doesn’t mean Moore did what she accused him of doing.
Stop insulting our intelligence by asking us to swallow every story as 100 percent true. That will only bring in fame-hounds with their made-up tales of woe. I tend to think Kelly Harrison Thorp’s story is one of those.

Thorp told AL.com that Moore came in to the Red Lobster one day when she was working, and she instantly recognized him because, as the deputy district attorney for Etowah County, “He was a public figure in this small town.” Thorp said Moore asked her if she’d like to go out with him sometime. “I just kind of said, ‘Do you know how old I am?,’” she said. “And he said, ‘Yeah. I go out with girls your age all the time.”

My bulls**t meter pegged on this one. A 17-year-old would not “instantly recognize” a deputy district attorney. The population of Etowah County, Alabama in 1980 is essentially the same as it is now, about 100,000 people. That’s about the size of the county I live in. If I were to ask a random high school senior who a particular assistant district attorney is in this county, I would bet $50 they could not tell me or recognize this person out of a lineup.
It’s one thing for the secretaries and clerks at the courthouse to share stories of Moore’s odd behavior or penchant for teenage girls, it’s quite another for a Red Lobster waitress to know who he is. And waitresses get hit on all the time. Swallowing this story is about as easy as swallowing a 1/2″ wrench.

This is politics, therefore it’s ugly

The political implications of Roy Moore dropping out or staying in are ugly. If Moore stays in, at this point, it looks like he will win, unless a few dozen more women with credible tales come forward. Regardless of how toxic he is to the Senate, he will probably win. When he wins, I don’t see the Senate expelling him without a lot more evidence. Voters can decide based on tea leaves or who looks believable. Senators need to have a higher standard for expulsion–similar to a court of law, I would expect.
But the problem is worse than just Roy Moore. His toxicity will hurt the GOP.
If Moore is elected, every Republican running for Senate (or even the House or state races) will have Democrats running against Moore plus that candidate. They will hang Trump and Moore around every Republican’s neck and it will make a difference in some races. The Democrats could take the Senate even with Moore’s Alabama seat safely Republican.
If Moore drops out, then Democrat Jones will take the Senate seat (I don’t see a write-in winning). And Democrats will still run against Moore in all the other races. Either way, Republicans lose because Moore is toxic.
Don’t insult our intelligence by claiming that Moore’s pro-life seat will make all the difference. Certainly, I could not vote for a candidate who was not pro-life, but I don’t live in Alabama. If electing pro-life Moore results in two pro-life seats being lost, what has been gained? Nothing.
Politics is ugly, and credibility matters. Being pro-life, or Christian, only counts if the character of the person making the claim lines up with those views. Otherwise, Josh Duggar would still be working for AFA Action.
Stop insulting our intelligence by claiming Moore is something he isn’t, and stop claiming every accusation is a complete fabrication, or indisputably true.

Further reading

Roy Moore Interviewed By Hannity:

That would be a 15 year difference or a girl 18. Now a woman the headline of The Washington Post woman says Roy Moore initiated a sexual encounter when she was 14 and he was 32. Now I want to explain this in all of its detail and then Judge Moore is going to respond to all of this exclusively here on the program today.

Political impact of Moore allegations | Newsday

The controversy over allegations regarding U.S. Senate candidate Roy Moore could redefine how voters look at sex scandals. Even as party leaders abandon him after accusations that he molested a 14-year-old and a 16-year-old girl when he was a single man in his 30s, Moore apparently hopes voters will feel otherwise come the Dec. 12 special election. History tells us that men can get away with many forms of sexual transgression and still get elected.

Tina Johnson and Kelly Harrison Thorp: 5 Fast Facts

Here’s five things you need to know: 1. All four women said Moore made moves on them when they were teenagers and Moore in his early 30s. According to Nelson, when she was 16 years old and working as a waitress, Moore sexually assaulted her.

It’s All About the “S”. How Stupid Do Roy Moore’s Lawyers Think We Are? – Erick Erickson, TheResurgent.com

Roy Moore said he’d never met and did not know the woman who was with Gloria Alred, Now his lawyers say he was the judge in her divorce case. Though note that this also contradicts her claims to have never met him since the assault unless only the lawyers ever went to court.

New Roy Moore accuser: ‘He didn’t pinch it; he grabbed it’ | AL.com

A Gadsden woman says Roy Moore groped her while she was in his law office on legal business with her mother in 1991. In the past week, Moore has been accused by five other women of a range of behaviors that include sexual misconduct with a woman when she was 14, and sexual assault of another when she was 16. This is the first public accusation of physical contact that happened after Moore was married.