The Federalist contributor Bethany Mandel knows exactly the cost and tolls taken on someone when they come forward with accusations of sexual improprieties.
When Mandel was 24, she sought out an Orthodox rabbi to help her convert to Judaism. That rabbi preyed on her, videotaping her and other women in the shower, preparing for the Jewish ritual of mikvah.
So she has a special kind of contempt for the victim-blaming and counter accusations being made by defenders of Roy Moore.
On Reliable Sources this Sunday, Mandel scoffed at the notion that these women who have come forward recently are doing this for any sense of personal profit. "This will be the only thing these women are ever known for. That's not something someone wants to sign up for. So, the accusation that they are doing this for fame, you know, if I wanted to be a famous person in Alabama, I would make a funny YouTube video. I would write a great "Huffington Post" about -- I don't know, Target clothes.
But that's not what they're going to be known for. They're going to be known for this."
And that notoriety will last for generations. As Mandel points out, if you Google her name, it autofills the name of her rabbi. This is something kids at her kids' schools will be aware of and no doubt bring up to them, whether she wants her kids to know about this or not.
The same with Leigh Corfman and the other accusers. That worst moment of their life, relived over and over and over.
Is that worth the alleged measly $1000 dollars that they were accused of taking (by Alex Jones, whom NO ONE should ever listen to) to smear his name? It's not worth 1000 times that amount.
One of Leigh Corfman's mother's friends has known about her encounter since Leigh confessed it to her mother. She wrote a post on Facebook, in which she describes the toll its taken on the family.
During Roy Moore’s political ascent, I’ve almost called Leigh’s mother many times to suggest that they expose who Roy Moore is at his core, but I realize that this story is Leigh’s to tell… no one else’s. Why has she not exposed him before now? Perhaps because no one likes being called a liar – and she is being called that now. Perhaps because that secret was safer locked away from the pain that she must be reliving now and having to deal with all over again.
Whatever it is, it is NOT a political conspiracy. Leigh’s parents bleed Republican red as long as I have known them…and Leigh says she has voted Republican in the last three elections. While this story has the “He said, She said” element, surely the counterbalance on the scales in Leigh’s favor is US…the group of friends who knew the story before it was a headline. There was simply no reason for Leigh to make this story up when she was young and trying to figure out life. Roy Moore’s terrifying advances surely had to complicate the path that she admitted was filled with choices she would like to redo. She owned them, admirably, but I wonder if some of her young years might have been easier if she hadn’t been abused by Roy Moore when she was 14 years old, vulnerable and confused.
Perhaps it’s simply that it’s time to shout from the rooftops that this man, Roy Moore…who wants our nation’s trust and our belief that he is a good man... simply doesn’t deserve our trust. He lied yesterday when he said he had never met Leigh Corfman. Maybe he’s gotten too old to act on his abnormal urges now, but in his heart, he still knows that when he could, he scared and emotionally scarred young women and in that chamber of his heart, his blood still runs mean and cold.
I believe in redemption and forgiveness. I’ve asked for forgiveness many times in my life, but first, you have to acknowledge that you did something wrong. And yesterday Roy Moore stood staunch and unyielding that he did no wrong. Take a lie detector test, Mr. Moore. There’s nothing fake in this story. Roy Moore is lying. This story happened and it was shared mother-to-mother with no agenda other than to get it off her chest and share her agony. Women friends do that, thankfully. Leigh’s mother told me this story when Roy Moore was a nobody…now he’s just a lying somebody.
Just because Leigh Corfman didn’t come forward and tell this horrific story about a bad man until now, doesn’t mean that it never happened. It’s her story. Yes, it was a long time coming, but she told her own story on her own timeline. The swelling tides filled with the tears of victimized women’s deep dark secrets can no longer return to the sea.
I also want to call attention to the another viral campaign, devised to help cut through the crap the Breitbart minions are throwing around in Alabama to remember that this was a 14 year old CHILD involved. A child. And not one that could possibly have the sophistication to handle a manipulative man in his 30s. Women are posting pictures of themselves at 14 and what they were interested in, including friend of the site, Lizz Winstead:
