I've become confused trying to follow the Facebook comments about Al Franken and Roy Moore. Which of these two perspectives is the right one?
The first woman to accuse Franken is a conservative. This is nothing more than a character-assassination plot to take down a Democratic Senator. The women who are accusing Franken are overreacting to the playful behavior of a former professional comedian, and he was wrong to apologize. Al Franken has an excellent, progressive voting record. He’s been a staunch defender of women’s rights. What Franken is accused of doing is not as bad as what Donald Trump and Roy Moore did. Until Republicans start paying a price for their behavior, we can’t be cannibalizing our own. If we do we’re being played once again by the Republicans, who never get punished for anything. This is a slippery slope. Other Democrats will be accused or framed, and we’ll lose lots of Congressional seats just when we need them the most. Franken only won his seat by 300 votes. If we let him resign, we’ll lose the Senate seat in Minnesota. Let’s clean house in terms of sexual harassment after the midterm elections, when we’ll have a new, Democratic Congress. What happened to “innocent until proven guilty”? Franken deserves due process. Let the Ethics Committee do its work.
The women who accused Moore are liars. They are being paid by the Washington Post and George Soros. This is a lamestream media plot to take down a decent man just before an election. It’s not uncommon in the South for older men to date younger women. Roy Moore has stood up for God and the Constitution for his entire life. He stands for Alabama values. Let the Alabama voters decide the outcome. The Democrats who are calling for Roy Moore’s head are the same people who defended rapist Bill Clinton. We have a new President who has a strong, conservative agenda and we have a very narrow margin in Congress. The last thing we need is another liberal ally of Nancy Pelosi in the Senate. If Doug Moore is elected, the things we want to achieve are at risk. Roy Moore has never been charged with any crime. If he is elected, the Senate Ethics Committee will take the appropriate steps.
A special place in hell
here is a special place in hell for those who prey on children. I have no reason to doubt these young women." -- Ivanka Trump on GOP Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moore
"Roy Moore denies it. And by the way he totally denies it. I can tell you one thing, we don't need a liberal person in there, a Democrat. I've looked at Doug Jones' record--it's terrible. Women are very special. I think it is a very special time, people are coming out and I think that's good for our society and I think it's very good for women and I'm very happy." -- Donald Trump today
After twelve full days of cowardly silence--during which Roy Moore was denounced as a child molester by the three largest newspapers in Alabama, GOP Congressional leaders Mitch McConnell, Paul Ryan, the Republican National Committee, the National Senatorial Republican Committee, the Alabama Young Republicans, Attorney General and former GOP Alabama Senator Jeff Sessions, Alabama GOP Senator Richard Shelby, and GOP Senators Ted Cruz, Mike Lee, Jeff Flake, John Cornyn, Cory Gardner, Orrin Hatch, Todd Young, Lindsey Graham, Susan Collins, John McCain, and Steve Daines--Donald Trump (who himself stands accused by 16 women of sexual harrassment and who bragged about committing multiple sexual assaults on tape) has finally put the Republican Party on record as an amoral tribe that puts partisanship above the safety of children. The leading Republican, who ran last year as the first openly racist candidate for President in modern times, has finally made it clear that the GOP prefers a sexual predator and a liar to any Democrat. A known predator who was banned from his local shopping mall and YMCA for harrassing young girls is more deserving of a Senate seat than a former prosecutor with a spotless record. And that's because the Democrat (who made his reputation putting Ku Klux Klansmen in prison for life for the murders of four young African American girls) is, according to Trump, "soft on crime."
Murdering children and sexually assaulting 14-year-old girls are not crimes in the mind if the President if the United States--get your head around THAT new reality, if you can.
This is the Republican Party today: the supporters of partisanship over human decency, the proud proponents of racist policies, the hit men for the rich and powerful, the traitors who welcome foreign interference in our elections, and the enemies of a free press and the rule of law.
