Moore scandal still lacks presidential comment

Roy Moore is in trouble … politically.

The Alabama Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate has been accused of having an improper sexual relationship with a 14-year-old girl when he was a 32-year-old lawyer.

It hasn’t been proven yet. It’s still an allegation and Moore is now facing troubling questions about his fitness for the Senate seat. He is running against Democratic nominee Doug Jones who, I believe, has remained essentially silent about the accusation.

I’m waiting, though, to hear from the president of the United States.

Moore is a Republican, as is Donald John Trump Sr. The president has been none too bashful about tweeting his view about his fellow GOP pols who suddenly find themselves in serious trouble.

This time? He’s quiet. Sure, the president has been in Asia visiting several countries and involving himself in foreign policy matters.

It’s fair to wonder aloud, though: Is the president going to speak out on a matter involving alleged improper sexual conduct? Dare he speak out? 

Trump, you see, has a load of his own baggage he’s lugging around. Much of it involves questions about his own sexual conduct. Indeed, a good bit of it comes from his own mouth. The “Access Hollywood” recording of him admitting to groping women, grabbing them by their genitals, is Exhibit A. He also has boasted about his own marital infidelity involving his first and second wives.

I also get that there’s a political component that might cause the president some grief. He didn’t endorse Moore in the GOP primary; he backed instead the appointed U.S. Sen. Luther Strange, who lost to Moore in the primary;  Strange occupies the seat once held by Jeff Sessions, whom Trump appointed to become attorney general. Trump did endorse Moore, though, after the balloting was completed.

The question of the moment is this: Does the president come to his ostensible political ally’s defense and risk doing more damage simply because he lacks the moral authority to speak out on anything involving sex and the law?