It's always those self-professed evangelicals who commit the most heinous and disgusting predatory acts while puffing out their chests and calling themselves righteous, isn't it?
The bombshell story just out in the Washington Post should end Roy Moore's political career forever, but it remains to be seen whether or not Alabama can cobble together a coalition of the decent to defeat the coalition of the greedy.
It reaches back to the 70s, when Moore was 32 and Leigh Corfman was 14. Yes. FOURTEEN YEARS OLD.
Alone with Corfman, Moore chatted with her and asked for her phone number, she says. Days later, she says, he picked her up around the corner from her house in Gadsden, drove her about 30 minutes to his home in the woods, told her how pretty she was and kissed her. On a second visit, she says, he took off her shirt and pants and removed his clothes. He touched her over her bra and underpants, she says, and guided her hand to touch him over his underwear.
“I wanted it over with — I wanted out,” she remembers thinking. “Please just get this over with. Whatever this is, just get it over.” Corfman says she asked Moore to take her home, and he did.
It wasn't just Corfman, either. There are four different women all willing to put their stories and names on the record about Moore's predilection for young girls.
Under Alabama law then and now, this conduct is not legal, as the Post notes:
The legal age of consent in Alabama, then and now, is 16. Under Alabama law in 1979, and today, a person who is at least 19 years old who has sexual contact with someone between 12 and 16 years old has committed sexual abuse in the second degree. Sexual contact is defined as touching of sexual or intimate parts. The crime is a misdemeanor punishable by up to one year in jail.
The law then and now also includes a section on enticing a child younger than 16 to enter a home with the purpose of proposing sexual intercourse or fondling of sexual and genital parts. That is a felony punishable by up to 10 years in prison.
In interviews, Corfman said she hadn't come forward because she had her own sordid past, which is typical of a culture where men are allowed to take whatever they want whenever they want while blaming women for taking it. It's sad that she lived with this all these years and never said anything before because she didn't want her life torn apart. Understandable, but sad.
Bannon and Breitbart are already ahead of the story, justifying their guy's sexual predatory behavior, while sneering "smear!" at the Washington Post.
Well, after all. This country elected a damned sexual predator as their president, so of course Bannon is fine with a 32-year old man fondling and kissing a 14-year old girl. Of course!
For his part, Moore denies any wrongdoing, citing his marriage, children and grandchildren as evidence. What he does not deny? The accounts of those four women.
It is now time for some Senators with endorsements for Moore to be held to account.
Like Ted Cruz, for example.
Here are some more:
Just this week, Senator Daines endorsed him.
Oh hell, here's the whole list of them. I also made a PDF of that page as of 11:00 AM PST today, because I don't think the page will stay the same for long.
Yesterday, Steve Schmidt called the voters in Virginia a "coalition of the decent." Will a similar coalition rise up in Alabama to defeat Roy Moore and elect a man who has fought all his life for civil rights, or will they let evil prevail to serve oligarchs' greed?
By all rights, Moore's career should be over. He should apologize to those women, beg their forgiveness, and retire from public life forever. But that will not happen, especially with the greed and avarice of the Republican party.
Instead, it will take decent people -- Democrat and Republican -- who reject granting power to a man who abused his power over young girls.
