Roy Exum
Oh, I’ll admit it – I am completely swept up in Roy Moore’s quest for an open Senate seat in Alabama and I can’t remember a dirtier political race. Everybody in this one hates everybody else. You remember how it started – President Trump appointed Alabama senator Jeff Sessions as the country’s Attorney General. And before Alabama Governor Robert Bentley got himself run out of office for chasing skirts, Bentley appointed Luther Strange as the successor of Sessons’ Senate seat in the interim.
The Republican machine was counting on Strange to easily win the primary in October and the General Election on Dec. 12 – Trump rigorously endorsed Strange --- but the controversial Judge Roy Moore whipped Strange pretty good. Suddenly Moore was a double-digit favorite in the general election and the GOP machine is staying awake at nights it is so desperate to sabotage the Judge.
Sessions, throwing “Presumption of Innocence” to the wind, has said publicly he believes the women who have stepped forward. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell – who it must never be forgotten blocked walking-horse reform – said he too believes the accusers, but neither Sessions nor McConnell have brought any proof and “Presumption of Innocence” (see below) is one of the great canons of law.
I received more emails yesterday chastising me for taking “the word of a pedophile” when that is not my stand at all. The goal in any allegation of crime is to be impartial and fair. So, yes, I am aghast when Sessions and McConnell say they believe the accusers without a shred of proof, other than the undeniable fact they hate Judge Roy Moore. That should not happen to any person in the United States.
No one can explain why the allegations against Roy Moore have just been revealed. I think I’ve got a pretty good idea but I could never prove it (hint, hint) so let’s hear from another woman you have never heard of. There is a lady named Brooke Pendley who apparently works for a group called Club for Conservatives and she is a huge believer in Judge Roy Moore. Read what this firebrand has to say:
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“I AM DISGUSTED BY THE GUTLESS AND STUPID RESPONSE”
“As a staunch conservative female, I cannot tell you how disgusted I am by the whole “Roy Moore likes ‘em young” debacle. Let me be absolutely clear. I am not disgusted in Judge Moore, or in what his dating habits were forty years ago.
“No, I am disgusted by the gutless and stupid response our so-called Republican leadership (they are not true leaders at all) has offered to these defamatory attacks against Judge Moore by the notoriously liberal Washington Post.
“I was an Intern for the Congress when I was a teenager. I don’t need to be told that politics is full of perverts and dirty old men. I experienced it for myself, firsthand. Judge Roy Moore is simply not one of them.
“Judge Moore is one of the kindest, gentlest, and most decent men I have ever met or worked with, who never ever said or did anything remotely suggestive or inappropriate around me, and it burns me to my core to hear such smut being peddled about him.
“It burns me even deeper to know that these RINOs (“Republicans In Name Only”) are attacking Judge Moore at a time when our slim 2-seat majority in the Senate has already proven to be too small to get President Trump’s agenda through the Congress. Losing Roy Moore would simply cost us another seat. One we cannot afford to lose.
“You know who these people are. It’s the two weenies who gave us President Obama — Romney and McCain — and all of the crowd that runs with them, from Karl Rove and Mitch McConnell right down to the Corkers, Flakes, and Murkowskis of the land.
“These self-appointed denizens of virtue are demanding that Judge Roy withdraw from the Senate race based on what? On the unsubstantiated claims of the Washington Post that forty years ago Judge Moore and a star-struck teenager briefly played together in their underwear.
“And what do we know about this teenager — now a middle-aged woman?
“That she confessed to the Washington Post before they printed the story that her youth was filled with alcohol, substance abuse, and mental illness.
“That her adulthood is characterized by three broken marriages, three bankruptcies, and published reports that she has made a habit of lying about her age and fabricating stories of unwanted attention against men in positions of leadership (including four different church Pastors if these accounts are to be believed).
“That her own mother says a significant part of her story is a complete lie!
“Mitt Romney says we must assume these spurious allegations are true, and that in his opinion Judge Moore is guilty until proven innocent. And this genius has a law degree from Harvard University!
“Why should we not assume instead that the allegations against Judge Moore’s teenaged date from forty years ago are also true? That she is a mentally ill, inveterate liar who fantasizes about men in power and fabricates stories about them to get attention? In my estimation, there is more evidence that these allegations about her are true than that her teenaged fantasies were real.
“After a generation of moral decay, our country is at a crossroad. Huge cities like Houston and Seattle have elected openly lesbian mayors. Transsexuals are actually being elected to judgeships and state legislatures. The city of Palm Springs, California has a city council made up entirely of homosexuals, bisexuals, lesbians, transsexuals, and a partridge in a pear tree.
“With all of this going on in our world, Romney and McCain ask us to obsess about the fact that a heterosexual septuagenarian who has been happily married for 30+ years dated younger women when Jimmy Carter was President. That is a moral compass I cannot comprehend.
“I don’t let the liberal extremists off the hook for what they are saying, either.
“When a married, draft-dodging Bill Clinton had adulterous sex in the Oval Office with a girl half his age and then lied about it under oath, the liberals said, “It’s only sex! It has nothing to do with his job as President. Why are you conservatives so obsessed with this?”
“What are these same liberals saying now? That West Point graduate and Vietnam veteran Roy Moore is a reprobate and beneath the dignity of the Senate if, as a young single man forty years ago, he petted in his underwear with a consenting date in the privacy of his own home.
“The hypocrisy of that is astounding.
“I don’t know what happened forty years ago in Etowah, Alabama. I do know what Judge Roy Moore has done in the forty years since.
“I know that he twice sacrificed his job for his principles, while Ryan and McCain and McConnell were sacrificing their principles because they thought it would save their jobs.
“The favorite Bible verse of every liberal is, “Judge not, that you be not judged.” I suppose it’s good that they are still reading any part of the Bible at all, but they would be well served to read what else Christ said that day in his Sermon on the Mount, to wit:
“Beware of liars who pretend to be sheep but are really wolves. Just as it is with trees, so it is with people. You will know them by their fruits. Good trees bring good fruit.”
“Judge Moore has been bringing good fruit for forty years. We know his heart because we see the fruit of it. The United States Senate needs more people like him, not fewer.”
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WHAT DOES ‘PRESUMPTION OF INNOCENCE’ MEAN?
DEFINITION: “A fundamental element of the right to a fair trial is that every person should be presumed innocent unless and until proved guilty following a fair trial. This is why the responsibility falls on the state to prove guilt and to discharge the presumption of innocence.
“Due to the presumption of innocence, a person cannot be compelled to confess guilt or give evidence against him/herself. It is for the state to produce evidence of guilt, not for the defendant to prove innocence. In general, therefore, a suspect’s silence should not be used as evidence of guilt.”
Pay close attention to what Jago Russell says about it: “Every person accused of a crime should have their guilt or innocence determined by a fair and effective legal process. But the right to a fair trial is not just about protecting suspects and defendants. It also makes societies safer and stronger. Without fair trials, trust in justice and in government collapses.”
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‘HARASSMENT AND COERCION ARE RAMPANT’
NOTE: Travis Moore (no kin to Roy), a former aide in Congress, began a signature campaign to reform "inadequate" sexual harassment policies in Congress last week and, when a House committee met on the matter yesterday, Travis had 1,500 signatures. CNN responded with a story telling how bad the sex problem is in Washington and here’s an excerpt:
(CNN) “Be extra careful of the male lawmakers who sleep in their offices -- they can be trouble. Avoid finding yourself alone with a congressman or senator in elevators, late-night meetings or events where alcohol is flowing. And think twice before speaking out about sexual harassment from a boss -- it could cost you your career.
“These are a few of the unwritten rules that some female lawmakers, staff and interns say they follow on Capitol Hill, where they say harassment and coercion is pervasive on both sides of the rotunda.
“There is also the "creep list" -- an informal roster passed along by word-of-mouth, consisting of the male members most notorious for inappropriate behavior, ranging from making sexually suggestive comments or gestures to seeking physical relations with younger employees and interns.
“CNN spoke with more than 50 lawmakers, current and former Hill aides and political veterans who have worked in Congress, the majority of whom spoke anonymously to be candid and avoid potential repercussions. With few exceptions, every person said they have personally experienced sexual harassment on the Hill or know of others who have.”
royexum@aol.com