US Politics November 2017

When pressed by Hannity, Moore said that he knew several of the other women who spoke to The Washington Post, which published the allegations Thursday, but did not "remember going out on dates." He admitted taking "young girls" out after returning to America following his service in Vietnam, but denied serving Gloria Thacker Deason, one of the accusers, rose wine, saying that any date would have happened in a dry county.

"She said she believed she was underaged," said Moore. "As I recall she was 19 or older. I never provided intoxicating liquor to a minor. I seem to remember her as a good girl."

completely denies ever knowing Corfman etc. (of course)

baaaarf

Democrats familiar with the campaign of their nominee, Doug Jones, said no new ad buys or investments were planned to take advantage of the story.

this is smart. stay out of the way.

i think one of the miscalculations of 2016 was trying to hammer home the obvious regarding Trump, which just stirred up a lot of unnecessary shit.

Doug Jones isn't just the best Dem candidate in Alabama politics in a very long time, he is a legitimately decent man. I'd have been surprised to see him jump on this, tbh.

Assuming he stays in the race and wins, what then? This psycho sex offender is elected to Senate and just hangs out there with people who hate him? Or does he become The New Normal.

does he just become the Steve King of the Senate?

he becomes the new Ted Cruz of the Senate

the Lyin' Of The Senate, as I believe he's known

John Lewis campaigning w Dougie in Mobile at the moment apparently

The whole ‘dry county’ defense is completely bogus. I heard it last night too.

https://newrepublic.com/article/145775/evangelicals-cant-quit-roy-moore

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/10/us/politics/roy-moore-alabama-republican.html?smid=fb-nytimes&smtyp=cur&_r=0

Republican senators and their advisers, in a flurry of phone calls, emails and text messages, discussed fielding a write-in candidate, pushing Alabama’s governor to delay the Dec. 12 special election or even not seating Mr. Moore at all should he be elected. In an interview, Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the majority leader, declined to say whether he would agree to seat Mr. Moore should he win. Mr. McConnell deferred a question about a possible write-in campaign by Senator Luther Strange, the current occupant of the seat, to Mr. Strange.

State law gives the governor broad authority to set the date of special elections, and Ms. Ivey, who is a Republican, already rescheduled the Senate election once, after inheriting the governor’s office in April when her predecessor, Robert Bentley, resigned in a sex and corruption scandal. Ms. Ivey’s advisers have not ruled out exercising that power again, according to Republicans in touch with her camp, but she has signaled that she would like reassurances of support from the White House before taking such an aggressive step.

oh dear

Wtf

From what I understand about Alabama politics, there's a sore loser law...which means that neither Luther Strange nor Mo Brooks could be installed in place of Moore since they already lost in the primary. I guess either of them could mount a write-in campaign as an independent, but I haven't heard any rumbling about that happening.

If Ivey postpones the election, Moore supporters will lose their shit, Jones supporters will lose their shit, and everybody in the middle will just say fucking hell, Alabama!

What are they promising to give Ivey in exchange for immolating her political career in Alabama?

he's big, he's loud, and you'd heard of him.

xpost

― Dan I., Friday, 10 November 2017 21:20 (yesterday) Permalink

Tad Doyle 2020

What grounds would Ivey even have for making such a move, "cant have election now cuz GOP might lose" sounds flagrantly illegal as a rationale, surely that would trigger legal challenges from both sides.

If McConnell could successfully keep a very qualified Supreme Court justice from being appointed, surely he can keep a toxic lunatic out of the Senate.

she doesn't need grounds, just the legal authority. there are no longer any 'norms'

New poll shows Moore and Dougie tied

https://decisiondeskhq.com/news/opinion-savvyddhq-alsen-poll-roy-moore-46-4-doug-jones-46/

I'd need to see some legal analysis before i accept that explanation. The governor is not a dictator.

Xp

what's weird about that poll to me is "82.2% were aware of the allegations" in a poll conducted the same day (iirc) they were published.

What did you say about the Maine gov? That they could sue her? I'm sure she'd be quaking in her Alabama boots.

Alabama exists to keep minorities out of power don’t put anything past Alabama

Lawsuits delay things and sometimes place limits on power

LePage doesnt have a legal leg to stand on fwiw

I don't think those words hold weight anymore. How did McConnell keep the SC seat vacant? How has Trump gotten away with all sorts of shit? If no one enforces the laws the laws are useless.

That Moore, a despicable human being by any standard, has made it this far, after failing at all sorts of shit in the past, and if molesting a teenage girl perhaps almost *ties* the race (assuming that is accurate), that just shows how far everything has shifted from "normal."

yes

related:

Trump judge nominee, 36, who has never tried a case, wins approval of Senate panel

Bringing up a lot of irrelevant stuff imo

Xp

https://www.politico.com/story/2017/11/10/sean-spicer-gq-magazine-story-fallout-244784

The directive to RNC employees to steer clear of floor five was given out of an abundance of caution, according to an RNC employee, to avoid violating a decades-old court order, known as a consent decree. It barred the RNC from challenging voters' eligibility at the polls after the party was accused in the 1980s of practices meant to discourage African-Americans from voting. The consent decree is set to expire next month, barring proof of any violations.

The anxious reactions to Spicer's comment demonstrate how haunted the GOP is by the consent decree — a remnant of a racially charged incident that some party leaders have been longing to leave behind. The party has been vigilant for the past year or more about avoiding even the appearance of flouting the court order.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/politics/wp/2017/11/10/at-the-end-of-the-day-perhaps-typography-will-be-trumps-downfall/?tid=hybrid_experimentrandom_with_top_mostshared_3_na

proven with science

The whole GOP loves Milkshake racist, the racist senate candidate who also loves milkshakes. *5 seconds later* we regret to inform you the racist is also a pedophile.

*5 seconds later* The whole GOP loves Pedophile racist

— Julius Goat 🦆 (@JuliusGoat) November 10, 2017

“Sen. Heitkamp introduces bill to address 'epidemic' of missing and murdered Native women”

https://www.indianz.com/News/2017/10/05/sen-heitkamp-pushes-bill-to-address-cris.asp

(From October)

The statement likely didn’t do his embattled candidacy any favors—even though Moore did deny having been involved with a 14-year-old. And it turns out he couldn’t deny relations with underage women in a phone call with a US senator after the show.

According to three sources briefed on the call, Moore could not deny “kissing” or “dating” teenagers while in his thirties. The Republican senator encouraged Moore to drop out of the race, the sources said. A spokesman for Moore declined to comment on an account of the phone call.

https://www.washingtonian.com/2017/11/11/in-call-with-us-lawmaker-roy-moore-doesnt-deny-kissing-teenagers-as-30-year-old/

"dating"

The Gateway Pundit is breaking the story that one of the accusers is a multiple divorcee with a history of bankruptcy filings.

Like Trump?

"The Gateway Pundit is breaking the story that one of the accusers is a multiple divorcee with a history of bankruptcy filings."

what a whore! let's run her out of town

No, not at all, totally different. The next headline is "China Visit: Trump Praised as 'UNCLE TRUMP'"

lemon squeezy easy peasy

what a revelation! a woman abused as a young teen has trouble with her relationships with men in later life. stop the presses!

missed this NYT story yesterday:

WASHINGTON — Mitch McConnell, the Senate majority leader, acknowledged on Friday that the Republican tax plan might result in a tax hike for some working Americans, saying he “misspoke” days earlier when he said that “nobody in the middle class is going to get a tax increase” under the Senate bill.

“I misspoke on that,” Mr. McConnell, a Kentucky Republican, said in an interview on Friday with The New York Times. “You can’t guarantee that absolutely no one sees a tax increase, but what we are doing is targeting levels of income and looking at the average in those levels and the average will be tax relief for the average taxpayer in each of those segments.”

such inspiring rhetoric! sure to mobilize support for the plan.

Getting a little worried they'll actually delay the AL election.

From a spokesman for Alabama's governor: "Governor Ivey is not considering and has no plans to move the special election for U.S. Senate."

— Alan Blinder (@alanblinder) November 11, 2017

This probably means that they still think they can win