Tag Archives: Roy Moore

national news

Sessions to run for U.S. Senate … what will Trump do?

Wow! A fabulous political melodrama might play out way down yonder in Alabama.

Jeff Sessions wants his old U.S. Senate seat back and plans to announce his candidacy for the Republican Party nomination. Oh, but get a load of this: He gave up his Senate after Donald Trump nominated him to be attorney general; the Senate confirmed him narrowly.

Then he pi**ed off the president royally by recusing himself from the Russia probe. He couldn’t in good conscience investigate himself, given that he worked on Trump’s presidential campaign, which found itself caught up in allegations that it colluded with Russians who attacked our electoral system in 2016. So he followed DOJ policy by recusing himself.

His act of conscience enraged Trump.

So, the previous 2020 Republican favorite for the Alabama seat happens to be a former state Supreme Court chief justice. Roy Moore had been kicked off his bench seat twice on allegations that he violated constitutional principles. Then he got ensnared in allegations that he dated underage girls and had sex with them. He ran the Senate from Alabama anyway. He got nominated in 2017 by the GOP. Trump had endorsed the incumbent appointed to succeed Sessions in the Senate, then backed Moore when the former judge won the party primary.

Then Moore lost to Democrat Doug Jones in the fall special election. Trump campaigned for Moore, but was unable to push Moore across the finish line to victory.

Here we are, in 2020. Jones is running for re-election. Moore is running in the GOP primary. Now, reportedly, so is Sessions.

What will Trump do? Does he back Moore again, even though his earlier endorsement proved futile; plus, we have the notion that Moore is unfit for elected office at any level, given the seemingly credible allegations of misbehavior?

Or does he back Sessions, who at least has prior U.S. Senate experience? I find the former senator/AG to be objectionable anyway, but he is a damn sight better for the job than Roy Moore. Remember, too, the many nasty things he said about Sessions when the then-AG backed out of the Russia investigation.

Meanwhile, we have Sen. Jones ready to cruise to his own party’s nomination. What might he do? How might he play all this out?

I am aware that only the good folks in Alabama will have a say in who they elect to the U.S. Senate. However, these men and women enact laws that affect all Americans. Therefore, what is Alabama’s business becomes our business, too, way over here in far-off Texas.

If I had a vote in Alabama, I would stick with the incumbent, Sen. Doug Jones.

national news

Here comes the judge one more time … ugh!

Roy Moore isn’t your run-of-the-mill goofy politician.

He once served on the Alabama Supreme Court. The state judicial ethics commission removed from his chief justice chair because he violated the constitutional prohibition against promoting religion.

Then he got caught up in a series of accusations by women who alleged that he had sex with them when they were, um, underage girls. 

After being kicked off the bench, Moore sought a seat in the U.S. Senate. Donald Trump endorsed Moore’s GOP primary foe, the incumbent senator who had been appointed to the seat vacated when Jeff Sessions was named attorney general, but Moore won anyway. Trump then decided to back Moore, who then lost to Democratic U.S. Sen. Doug Jones.

Now the former judge is back in the hunt for the seat he lost. Here’s the rub: National Republicans want no part of Roy Moore. They are going to work overtime to defeat him in next year’s Alabama Republican primary.

My favorite comment on Moore’s candidacy, which he announced today, comes from GOP Sen. Martha McSally of Arizona, who said: “Give me a break. This place has enough creepy old men.”

Bingo, Sen. McSally.

Republicans reportedly after actively lobbying Sessions — whose seat Moore sought and then lost to Sen. Jones — to run again.

And that brings up a whole other bit of political comic relief. Donald Trump hired Sessions to be attorney general, then became enraged at the AG when he recused himself from investigating the “Russia thing” because of Sessions’ role in the 2016 presidential campaign and the transition after Trump got elected.

Who, then, does the president endorse if the GOP primary becomes a contest between a disgraced former judge and an accused sexual predator and the former senator who then got fired as AG by the very same president of the United States?

This ought to be fun to watch.

legal news, national news, political news

Say it isn’t happening, that Roy Moore is coming back

This can’t be happening. If it is, then someone needs to give me the strength to endure what looks like a long, arduous and utterly hideous campaign season.

Roy Moore, the man accused of sexual dalliances with underage girls while he was an adult, might be running for the U.S. Senate next year against the man who beat him for the seat in Alabama.

Oh, the humanity!

New public opinion polling say that Alabama Republicans favor Moore if he chooses to challenge Sen. Doug Jones, who is running for re-election.

The story is tawdry. Women came forward and accused Moore, the former Alabama Supreme Court chief justice, of sexual misconduct involving minor girls. It all happened a long time ago. Moore proclaimed his innocence. He got the belated backing of Donald Trump, who stood behind his fellow Republican.

Moore lost the race to Jones, who took the Senate seat vacated when Jeff Sessions resigned to become attorney general in the Trump administration.

Hey, this is a big deal for all Americans. The Senate enacts laws that affect all Americans. I don’t want Roy Moore within spitting distance of Capitol Hill. Alabama judicial ethics officials suspended Moore twice from that state’s highest court.

Now he wants a chance to enact laws in the Senate? Please . . . no!

national news

Sex scandal grows at Ohio State … and in Congress

Jim Jordan isn’t your normal, run-of-the-mill back-bencher in the U.S. House of Representatives. He is an outspoken conservative, and is one of the founders of the Freedom Caucus.

He also now is finding himself possibly caught in a sex scandal of someone else’s making. The problem with Jordan’s role in it might be that he knew what was going on but remain quiet about it.

The Ohio State University wrestling program is beset with reports of men sexually abusing young men. They allegedly peered into the locker room and pleasured themselves while watching the athletes  shower or sitting in saunas. There are reports of sex acts as well.

Jordan’s role? He was an assistant wrestling coach who, according to at least five wrestlers, knew these events were happening but did nothing to stop them.

Jordan denies all of it. Donald J. Trump has called the accusers liars while defending his congressional ally.

But … the men’s stories are piling up. They are sounding as credible as, say, the women who accused former Alabama judge and U.S. Senate candidate Roy Moore of assaulting them, or of the young men who accused former Penn State University assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky of terrible deeds.

This story has all the makings of a scandal that is turning into a monstrosity.

political news

GOP might produce another election-year goofball

Don Blankenship well might become the new Roy Moore.

It must be “fun” to be a Republican these days. Alabama Republicans nominated Moore, an alleged pedophile, in 2017 as their party’s candidate for the U.S. Senate. Moore ended up losing a special election to Democratic Sen. Doug Jones — and the Republican Party nationally breathed a sigh of relief.

Ahh, but the fun may be starting all over again, in West Virginia.

Don Blankenship, who served time in prison after a mine he owns exploded and killed 29 mine workers, is reportedly surging just ahead of the GOP Senate primary that occurs on Tuesday.

Mainstream Republicans in West Virginia are concerned that a Blankenship primary victory will guarantee the re-election of Democratic U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin.

Hey, it gets better. Blankenship is not standing still letting the GOP attacks on him go unanswered. He has referred to “Cocaine Mitch” McConnell in describing the Senate majority leader.

Or, as Politico reports: This week, Blankenship began airing a TV commercial labeling McConnell “Cocaine Mitch,” an apparent reference to a 2014 report that drugs were once found aboard a shipping vessel owned by the family of McConnell’s wife, Taiwan-born Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao. Then, a few days later, Blankenship began airing another spot declaring that McConnell’s “China family has given him tens of millions of dollars.”

Yep! That’s the guy who West Virginia Republicans just might nominate to run for the U.S. Senate this fall.

Ain’t this just a blast?

national news

Trump’s campaign record is, um, not so good

Donald John Trump ventured to western Pennsylvania this weekend to campaign on behalf of Rick Saccone, a Republican candidate for Congress.

The election is set for Tuesday.

The president seems to think his presence on the campaign podium will help Saccone defeat his Democratic opponent, Conor Lamb.

Hmm. Let’s ponder that for a moment. Oh, how about this?

Trump campaigned in Alabama in 2017 on behalf of U.S. Sen. Luther Strange, who was running for election in the Republican primary. Strange had been appointed to the Senate after Jeff Sessions left to become attorney general.

Strange didn’t win. He lost to Roy Moore, the highly controversial former Alabama Supreme Court chief justice.

Trump then endorsed Moore and campaigned — more or less — for the embattled former judge. Moore, remember, had those accusations of sexual misconduct hanging over his candidacy.

Moore ended up losing the special election to Doug Jones, a Democrat who became the first senator from his party to represent Alabama in 25 years.

The president’s “popularity” in Alabama didn’t take either of his preferred candidates over the finish line ahead of their foes.

Will he find the magic in Pennsylvania?

Hah!

national news, political news

Trump shows his dark side yet again

Donald Trump has declared that his former staff secretary has denied the accusations of two former wives and a former girlfriend that he beat them up.

The president stood behind a U.S. Senate candidate who was accused of sexual abuse by women, one of whom claimed the man abused her when she was a 14-year-old girl.

The president also has called the 16 or so women who have accused him of sexual abuse liars.

Is there a pattern here? If you’ve missed it, I’ll offer this: Women have accused men of sexual abuse and spousal battery but the president stands foursquare behind the men. What’s more, he has called the women liars.

Rob Porter’s resignation as staff secretary comes after one of his former wives provided a photograph showing here with a shiner under her right eye; she says Porter did that to her.

The many women who have accused former GOP Senate candidate Roy Moore have provided detailed allegations of what Moore supposedly did to them.

And the women who have accused Trump himself of sexual misbehavior? They tell the same story. Furthermore, Trump has actually boasted about how he has grabbed women by their genital area.

What in the name of all that is holy is it going to take for the president’s devoted Republican “base” to recognize who has been elected to the highest, most exalted office in the land?

Trump’s statement of good wishes for Rob Porter — with no mention of (a) the women who have accused him of battery or (b) the sin of spousal/domestic abuse — reveal an astonishing lack of compassion in the man entrusted to stand as the nation’s moral authority.

The president either doesn’t get it, or he gets it, but chooses to ignore it.

national news

No more Moore

Roy Moore is distinguishing himself in a dubious manner.

He has emerged as the most ungracious loser in modern U.S. political history.

Moore lost a special election on Dec. 12 to U.S. Sen.-elect Doug Jones, who won by about 20,000 votes in Alabama, or by roughly 1.5 percent.

Moore, the Republican, refused to concede to Jones, the Democrat, on election night. Not only that, he refused to do so the next day, or the next week.

Here we are, three weeks later and Moore still hasn’t conceded. Ohh, no. Instead, he sought to overturn the results by declaring — without proof — that there was widespread voter fraud in Alabama. The Alabama secretary of state, also a Republican, certified Jones’s victory; the new senator will take office after being sworn in next month by Vice President Pence.

Moore was a deeply flawed candidate from the get-go. The Alabama judicial conduct commission removed him twice from the Alabama Supreme Court because he refused to follow federal court orders. He is an extreme religious zealot.

Then came allegations of sexual misconduct by several women, one of whom accused Moore of seeking to seduce her when she was just 14 years of age. Hmm. Pedophilia — allegedly — anyone?

Well, this clown isn’t going away. He might run for Alabama governor. Oh, brother.

Just go away.

national news

Just … go away, Roy Moore

Don’t you wish Roy Moore would simply just vanish? I do.

The combative, zealous and allegedly perverted Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate in Alabama lost an election to Democratic nominee Doug Jones earlier this month.

Moore hasn’t yet conceded defeat to the man who beat him by 1.5 percentage points. Ohhh, no. Instead, this goofball former judge has alleged “massive voter fraud” in Alabama cost him the election to Sen.-elect Jones.

To his credit, Republican Alabama Secretary of State John Merrill dismissed Moore’s bogus claim of voter fraud. There was none found, Merrill said. A judge tossed Moore’s complaint into the crapper. Game over, judge.

Merrill certified Jones’s victory and the new senator will be sworn in next month by Vice President Mike Pence.

But Moore — the former two-time Alabama chief justice and a man accused by women of sexual misconduct — isn’t going quietly away. He’s continuing to raise holy hell with non-existent controversies.

Moore is making a spectacle of himself by seeking some sort of redress while in effect defaming local election officials by contending fraud where none exists.

You know, it’s interesting in one way that Donald J. Trump would have endorsed this guy for election to the Senate, albeit belatedly. Moore is showing the same lack of grace and class as his chief political benefactor, the president of the United States.

Peaceful transitions of power are supposed to be one of the many hallmarks of this great country. Alabama had an election. It produced a clear winner. It’s now time for the loser to bow out.

If only this guy would simply go away. Never to be heard from again.

national news, political news

GOP ‘wins’ while their guy loses

Republicans far and wide are breathing more easily today than they were a week ago.

Last week they were worrying that one of their own, Roy Moore of Alabama, was going to win a special election to a U.S. Senate seat. He didn’t. Moore lost that contest to Doug Jones, a Democratic former federal prosecutor.

I’ll leave it to my old pal Tom Taschinger — who succeeded me more than 20 years ago as editorial page editor of the Beaumont Enterprise — to explain in detail how Republicans won while losing an election.

Read Taschinger’s essay here.

Moore was a damaged candidate even before allegations surfaced from women who accused him of sexual misconduct. He is a religious zealot who doesn’t work well with so-called “establishment” Republicans, many of whom cringed at the idea of him joining the ranks of the U.S. Senate.

Moreover, other GOP candidates would have had to run under the banner of a party that elected someone accused of the hideous acts that Moore is alleged to have committed. That’s if he won.

Since he didn’t, Republicans now have been spared the misery of campaigning under the specter of a “Sen. Roy Moore.”

Does this put the Republicans in the clear? Does it make a forgone conclusion that they’ll hold onto their slim Senate majority after the 2018 midterm election?

Hardly. The fight has just begun.