by Sandy » Wed Nov 15, 2017 2:33 pm
Just a couple of notes--
There is no statute of limitations in Alabama for sexual abuse of a minor. There's a little lack of clarity as to whether that applies to 17 and 18 year olds, the way the law is written.
This isn't Moore's first rodeo when it comes to these kinds of accusations. This is the kind of thing that comes to the forefront when media attention increases, and with the scope of national media investigating who he is, they've bumped into people who never really been given a voice to talk before. That, and the fact that the man was in a powerful, judicial position to squash most of this kind of thing one way or another, including by wielding influence and power, contributed to burying this stuff, though it appears that people in Alabama have been talking about it for more than just the past few weeks. The victim's accounts are detailed, and times and places are corroborated by others.
It probably wasn't a good idea for Moore to talk to Sean Hannity. Even though his interview was mostly slow pitch softball, Moore didn't come off confident in his innocence or sound truthful. This is a tough situation, in a country where theoretically, you are innocent until proven guilty, at least from a legal perspective. Part of the reason reporters and journalists were digging so deep is that there are a lot of disturbing things about the guy that don't have to do with sexual assault of a teenaged girl. His ties and involvement in white supremacist groups, white nationalists and neo-confederates, and other right wing extremism are concerning, and in the course of looking at his past, they bumped into this.
This, however, is politics. You know there's going to be a storm when you've hung your hat on an extremist right wing populist social platform that appeals to right wing Christian groups, and there's a moral issue like this that comes up. When you've been a caustic critic of the Clintons, including Bill on this very kind of thing, and of the debunked "birther" nonsense, you'd better be next to perfect in this regard yourself, or you better be ready to weather the firestorm. I don't think this guy is.
So, in the most unlikely of places, the Democrats will gain a senate seat.