I think we can cut the “if true” bullshit:
Beverly Young Nelson, speaking Monday at a news conference in New York with women’s rights attorney Gloria Allred, said Moore sexually assaulted her when she was 16.
Nelson said that Moore physically attacked her in a car, grabbing her breasts and trying to force her head down on to his crotch.
“I thought he was going to rape me,” said Nelson, who at one point broke down in tears.
[…] Immediately after the press conference, Cory Gardner, the chair of the National Republican Senate Committee, said that if elected on 12 December, Moore should be expelled from the Senate.
It takes a 2/3 vote to expel a senator. I doubt the Republicans would have the votes on their side.
Trentrunner
Wonder how many more Mary Janes have to drop…
Mike in DC
The yearbook thing just kills me. Who does that shit? This guy.
MomSense
@Mike in DC:
I know. Vile.
nonynony
This is just an attempt to tell the moderate Republicans in AL who are on the fence about voting for Moore that it’s okay – cast your ballot for him and we’ll replace him with someone else.
But that won’t happen. If Moore wins and they actually try to unseat him, it’ll be war. You need 2/3s of the Senate to vote to expel him, and that means they have to do it with Dem votes. Likely 100% of Dems will vote not to seat him, so any Republican voting not to seat him will be siding with Democrats against a Republican.
I’d believe that they could get to 50. Maybe as high as 55. I doubt they could get to
6667.ETA: Math is hard.
Mary G
I hope if they try, Schumer extracts DACA, CHIP, and everything else Democrats want in return. Otherwise, just leave Moore in the Senate and hang him around their necks every time he acts up. Hopefully Jones will win and cut their margin to the bone.
Elizabelle
Thinking about the sea change in popular culture.
Rod Stewart’s “Tonight’s the Night” is not looking so good in the current climate. Maybe it should appear in heavy rotation with Roy Moore clips. “Don’t be afraid, my virgin child….”
And — not one to miss a chance for “both sides”, Atlantic Monthly scold is quick to bring up feminists standing up for Bill Clinton. Um, were the Juanita Broadrick allegations ever proven? I do not believe so, but Caitlyn Flanigan uses them. Anyway, both sides. Both. Sides.
JMG
@MomSense: Also stupid to the point of actual insanity.
Roger Moore
I don’t think they’d have too many reservations about giving him the boot. It gives them a tiny bit of good PR (“See, the Republican Party is decent enough to boot a proven child molester”) and makes little practical difference because he’d be immediately replaced by Alabama’s Republican governor.
Betty Cracker
Speaking of Repubs in Disarray…
Wowzers!
lamh36
The Moar You Know
something something Bill Clinton
/media
chopper
explains why yertle was all up in moore’s shit this morning. it’s scumbags all the way down.
dogwood
@Elizabelle:
Sorry but Juanita Broderick told her story just like these women are telling theirs. Are you holding her and other Clinton accusers to a different standard than Moore or Trump accusers?
lamh36
Ever notice how when media wants to do “both sides” headlines on this Roy Moore story, they bring up Bill Clinton’s accusers…but conveniently NEVER seem to bring up Anita Hill and Clarence Thomas. Sitting SCOTUS accused of sexual harrassment?
OGLiberal
If Alabama votes to put this guy in the Senate can we just expel the state from the Union? Seriously, if conservatives in Alabama are so racist and just all around dicks that they’d vote for this guy and if liberals/Dems in Alabama are so weak that they can’t stop it, does Alabama even deserve to be a state? Maybe turn it in a national park and make Birmingham and Montgomery city states?
guachi
I think these reports have come about two weeks too soon. There is one month left and that’s enough time for the republicans to come up with a way out of this.
SFAW
“And it’s Gloria Allred OMFG!!!!!! The castratingest libtard bitch of all castrating libtard bitches, except for Hitlary!!! ”
Which is how some of the RWNJs are playing it allred-y.
The Party of Personal Responsibility for Other Persons, a/k/a the Grifting Old Pedophiles. Fuckem.
hueyplong
Same standard. Some pass, some don’t.
Tim C.
I think it’s possible Jones wins. But I’m letting the one good poll go to my head. Most likely, but far from certain, outcome is that he wins and then the Senate won’t expel him. I think this is the classic “I wish a mother****er would” situations.” On one side we narrow the Senate deficit from 52-48 to 51-49, on the other we clobber the whole GOP with being the party or Roy Moore. He and Trump are the face of the GOP, forever.
Dorothy A. Winsor (formerly Iowa Old Lady)
@lamh36: “Both sides” and “what about” always make me drag out my Mom hat, put it on, and say “We’re not talking about Billy up the street. We’re talking about you.”
ruemara
@Betty Cracker: So many people on the left refuse to stop supporting WikiLeaks.
lamh36
hueyplong
A decent guess is that the GOP will dog whistle to (or flat out tell) Alabama voters to go ahead and vote for Moore and they (the Senate and AL’s governor) will make sure he’s replaced by another Republican.
randy khan
If I were Schumer, I’d explain that the Democrats won’t be around for the vote unless at least 30 Republicans (maybe 40) vote to expel Moore, and I think I’d want to extract substantive concessions as well.
Nicole
@Elizabelle: Oh God, I’m glad I wasn’t the only one who was annoyed by that dumb op-ed. “Democrats need to own up to this because the world needs them!” Aaaannnnd…. Republicans are off the hook, as always, ’cause reasons.
It’s like she never heard of Anthony Weiner, or Eliot Spitzer. Or thinks Bill is running for office. Ugh. Or that Bill was IMPEACHED.
aimai
@dogwood: @lamh36: Basically, this. If Ken Starr and all those guys couldn’t prove anything, or even get any wet smoke, it was not for lack of trying. Read the Hunting of the President to find out how little private life Bill and Hillary had left by the time they got to DC. If there had been anything there, the republicans would have run with it successfully.
Villago Delenda Est
@dogwood: She told her several stories with all the details changing and destroyed any credibility she had.
Mnemosyne
@dogwood:
Broaddrick’s accusations were repeatedly and extensively investigated by Kenneth Starr. Even he didn’t think she was credible.
Emma
@dogwood: Maybe because even Starr couldn’t find any evidence? He sure as h*ll tried!
Betty Cracker
@ruemara: Well, if they don’t after this irrefutable evidence that Assange was colluding with the Trump campaign and manipulating U.S. voters, we’ll have to call them something other than “left.”
Elizabelle
@dogwood: I’d have to see more about Broaddrick. It does not seem that Kenneth Starr went to town on her story — more that it could not be proven. It’s always been lurking in the rightwing swamps. Along with 33 other victims, crap to that extent.
Always kind of took her for an also ran type. Was not following the story closely by the time her allegations surfaced.
Jeffro
@Betty Cracker: Ah – the GOOD stuff! I’m betting that Bobby Three Sticks can make the case that Wikileaks is a paid, willing partner of a hostile foreign power’s intelligence service…and they’ll have DJT JR on tape/email knowingly working with WL to release stolen material for maximum campaign impact…and therefore, the president’s* son is guilty of conspiracy against the United States.
(gonna be a lot of those kinda charges…)
oatler.
“It’s shitty humans all the way down.”
Mart
What makes me crazier is how this religious bigot is even a candidate for Senate, let alone likely to win whilst a known child rapist. Come on 60% of Alabama.
The Moar You Know
@Mnemosyne: That’s not going to keep the idiot brigade from screaming about Clinton until the heat death of the entire universe.
retr2327
@Mike in DC: Here’s what I don’t get: why did Gloria Allred publicize the yearbook now? By itself, it doesn’t prove the sexual assault (not that I need convincing, to be clear).
But just imagine if she’d held it back, and Moore, as he did with Corfman, defended against the allegation by claiming he didn’t even know her? Then, the yearbook is a devastating answer. So why show it now?
Jeffro
re: Broaddrick…let’s not re-litigate this…we’re just falling for the GOP’s terminal case of “whataboutism”. Make them answer for Moore, full stop.
scott (the other one)
@Elizabelle: Holy shit. TIL the lyrics to “Tonight’s the Night”…
Elizabelle
@The Moar You Know: Yeah. But we don’t need to give them air.
Seeing that in the Atlantic? I am not going to visit that site again for a few days. They’ve got a dreadfully cluttered interface, anyway, and too much Brodersplaining going on.
(Love me some James Fallows, though.)
hueyplong
@retr2327: You are assuming the yearbook is all she’s got. You sure about that?
Elizabelle
@scott (the other one): Yeah. LOL. And he’s Sir Rod, right?
Amaranthine RBG
Bill Clinton is a predatory asshole, you don’t need to go past Monica Lewinsky to prove that.
Anthony Weiner is a predatory asshole.
Clarence Thomas is a predatory asshole.
Roy Moore is a predatory asshole.
Bill Clinton and Anthony Weiner ‘s political positions were generally preferable to every republican political opponent they ran against.
Roy Moore and Clarence Thomas are both racist assholes whose political positions hurt women, minorities, the working class in general and also trample on the separation between church and state.
All of these statements are true.
This isn’t hard to understand.
different-church-lady
@Mike in DC: I know — what in ever lovin’ hell is a grown man who isn’t a teacher doing signing a kid’s yearbook?
Trentrunner
A sixth woman has accused George H. W. Bush of groping her, when she was 16.
Why aren’t we hearing more about this?
http://time.com/5019182/george-hw-bush-groping-allegation/
mai naem mobile
There’s going to be more. If he was hanging out in HS for a two years he probably was pulling this shit at least once every couple of months so you figure another 4-5 out there. I am kind of surprised this didn’t come out before. And shame on his colleagues at the DAs office who knew he was screwing around with HS girls. Also, the Alabama media.
SatanicPanic
@Amaranthine RBG: I don’t think their positions matter. We should consider their behavior disqualifying.
Elizabelle
@Trentrunner: We will.
That’s before his dotage. 2003? He was still in pretty good mental state then. Actually sad to hear this, because — aside from Clarence Thomas and having enabled W — I preferred GHWB to Reagan paleocons and the W/Cheney neocons.
different-church-lady
It is perfectly possible for Bill Clinton to be a big creep worthy of condemnation and also be innocent of some of the specific accusations against him.
Major Major Major Major
@Betty Cracker: Or just admit that the American left has some issues. No need to no-true-scotsman it.
Tim C.
@Amaranthine RBG: But but but… I like my narratives clear and straightforward where “my” team is always pure and good!
@different-church-lady: I *AM* a High School teacher, and I would never ever ever ever write “love” in one to a girl. I also just write “To the best student I ever had.” in everyone’s yearbook.
different-church-lady
@Tim C.:
Yeah, that too — good catch.
Mnemosyne
@Major Major Major Major:
Right now, the American left has more issues than National Geographic.
(Yes, an oldie but a goodie.)
Amaranthine RBG
@SatanicPanic:
Yes and no.
We can decide not to watch shows or fund anything by Woody Allen, Roman Polanski, Lena Dunham, and Louis C.K. because they victimized the young/less powerful. That’s a choice that, really, only affects us and (to a much smaller extent) the performer.
But when it comes to elections, there is generally only two choices in our crappy system. Even if we had known the full extent of Clinton’s icky/criminal behavior prior to the election against Bush I or Dole, it would have been preferable to vote for him because the Bush I/Dole policies would hurt millions of people. Sure, in an ideal world one wouldn’t have to make these choices, but, well, here we are.
Earl
@Mnemosyne: You can’t seriously be holding up Ken fucking Starr as a model for investigating sexual assault claims. Seriously.
FYI she contemporarily told three people who confirmed her account. We’re long overdue for a settling of claims for Bill Clinton. Her account is at bare minimum reasonably credible.
? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?
@Amaranthine RBG
Sounds like a great start to a novel!
Mnemosyne
@Earl:
I’m holding up Ken Starr as someone who was desperate to indict Bill Clinton for something — anything! — and eventually settled for perjury because Bill lied under oath about a consensual sexual relationship.
You really think that Ken Starr would have held back on prosecuting an actual provable crime if he had found one? That he had all of the evidence that Broaddrick was telling the truth and instead said, Nah, let’s use the Lewinsky thing instead?
Earl
@Mnemosyne: The Ken Starr that ignored all the rapes at Baylor? I’m holding up you as no different than the Republicans still voting for Moore. Go read this
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juanita_Broaddrick
SatanicPanic
@Amaranthine RBG: Sure, but I don’t think we’re going to have to make that choice much going forward. Better to root out all the creepers while they’re still in the House or being mayors, then you don’t have to worry about Senators or president.
schrodingers_cat
Thread infested with R trolls indulging in whatabouttery regarding Clinton. Its so not the point. Bill Clinton is not running for Senate in Alabama.
dogwood
@Earl:
What a prosecutor believes vs what he/she can prove beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law are two different things. It could very well be that the Moore accusers would have trouble proving their cases in a court of law. That doesn’t mean they’re not credible.
SFAW
@different-church-lady:
But then how could some of the fair-and-balanced “liberals” here be able to “both sides” things? And how could they pretend that Ken Starr did NOT make WJC’s destruction a nigh-on-holy cause (and thus Starr curiously ignored WJC’s rape of Broadrick, Willey, Lewinsky?) You really need to think these things through, instead of being so anti-both-siderism.
Jeffro
@Jeffro: @schrodingers_cat: Great minds think…nearly alone, it looks like. Ah well, we tried to tell them…
Amaranthine RBG
@SatanicPanic:
Agreed. Doesn’t seem to be happening, though. I’m looking at you Gavin Newsom.
schrodingers_cat
@Jeffro: I see an unfamiliar nym trying to derail the conversation. Troll sockpuppet is what I conclude.
TenguPhule
@Elizabelle: He was up to his ears in Iran-Contra and pardoned the fuckers.
Bush Sr was a clever version of his son, but just as fucking dirty.
Kristine
@schrodingers_cat:
My feeling is that they don’t get to make those arguments because they were supposed to be the adults in the room, all-knowing about business and finance and the workings of the world and Jesus is on their side. When they get caught with their hands in the cookie jar, they don’t get to whine “but Billy did it too.” They were supposed to be better.
SatanicPanic
@Amaranthine RBG: people keep making these suggestions about Newsom, but what is it he’s accused of? Partying too much or harassing people?
Mnemosyne
@Earl:
The Ken Starr who was protecting his turf and reputation at Baylor vs the Ken Starr who was desperate to get Bill Clinton to resign in disgrace?
There’s a reason Broaddrick’s accusations never made it out of the right-wing fever swamp. They were not credible. Only someone with an irrational hatred of the Clintons would think she was credible.
Amaranthine RBG
@schrodingers_cat:
Well, duh.
And if I happen to find myself in a conversation with an Alabama republican voter, I wouldn’t be talking about Clinton, except to say, “Yes, he was vile. Don’t you think it’s important to keep predators out of office?”
retr2327
@hueyplong: I’d love it if she has more (Moore?), but given the technology at the time, that seems unlikely (nowadays, there’d be emails, facebook posts, etc., etc.). The fact that she has his signature, on a yearbook photo no less, is already a miracle.
Mnemosyne
@SFAW:
Because they believe all of the anti-Clinton propaganda. Every word of it. They really think that Kenneth Starr conspired with Bill to keep Broaddrick’s accusations under wraps.
It’s hard for me to comprehend that level of conspiracy mongering, but here we are.
hueyplong
Seems like we’re making new friends today, though they all seem very concerned.
les
@Earl:
That’s right, damn it!! Third way neoliberalism is still fucking us up!!! Wait–sex stories? Are you the stupidest person on the internet? Better warn the Gateway Pundit there’s a challenger.
hueyplong
I like to think Earl IS the Gateway Pundit. It’s the romantic in me.
Amaranthine RBG
@SatanicPanic:
Newsom married Kimberly Guilfoyle who later became a Fox star. Her political views were the same then as they are now.
After he was divorced from Guilfoyle, Newsom had an affair with the wife of his close friend who was also his campaign manager and chief of staff.
That’s what is public. San Francisco is, in many ways, a small town and the public stuff is the tippy-top of the iceberg.
If Newsom were in Alabama instead of California, he would be making wish-washy statements about Roy Moore today. He has Bill Clinton’s moral compass without his intellect or compassion.
Percysowner
Whatever the credibility of Broaddrick, there is one thing she wasn’t 14 YEARS OLD. There really isn’t a comparison here.
schrodingers_cat
@Kristine: Yep they were going to bring honor and dignity to the WH. Wasn’t that W’s slogan?
zhena gogolia
@different-church-lady:
People don’t seem to be able to comprehend this.
SatanicPanic
@Amaranthine RBG: I did hear about his affair. That’s not cool, but I am not married to him so I don’t know if it’s a big deal to me.
Mnemosyne
@different-church-lady:
Yep. I fully believe that Bill is a skeevy guy who hit on every woman in sight. I still don’t find Broaddrick to be credible, and neither has any prosecutor or even a civil lawyer.
If Paula Jones was able to file a civil lawsuit, why not Broaddrick?
Mnemosyne
@SatanicPanic:
I am not a fan of Newsome, but he was single at the time. It was his campaign manager’s wife who was adulterous.
Amaranthine RBG
@Mnemosyne:
Some people live in a moral universe where it’s despicable to fuck your best friend’s spouse even if you’re single at the time.
You live in a different moral universe, I guess.
SFAW
@Mnemosyne:
We should get them a set of those special sunglasses that Rowdy Roddy had in They Live
Mnemosyne
@Amaranthine RBG:
Just correcting Satanic Panic’s facts. Sleeping with your best friend’s wife is sleazy as hell whether or not you yourself are also married at the time.
Amaranthine RBG
@Mnemosyne:
Appreciate the clarification.
SatanicPanic
@Mnemosyne: fair points, I was imprecise.
Big Picture Pathologist
@Elizabelle:
Not to be pedantic, but no allegations against Trump/Moore were ‘proven’ either.*
*I should mention I’m inclined to not believe Broaddrick because in Clinton’s case there truly appears to be only one accuser throughout his lifetime.
ETA: What dogwood said.
Big Picture Pathologist
@Big Picture Pathologist:
Um, I see others addressed this. I never knew Starr investigated it. Never mind.
Mart
@SFAW: I did not know “They Live” existed until my wife stopped on it for a few minutes channel flipping. We both had a good laugh at the “never-ending” fight scene where he tries to get actor Keith David to put on the fucking sunglasses already https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DA3DnysxhOA
SFAW
@Big Picture Pathologist:
Kind of early in the process to be at that stage, ain’t it? And nothing has been “proven” re: Harvey Weinstein, so it’s not really clear what your point is.
On the other hand, the Clinton’s have been under the “we hates them, Precious” microscope for about 25 years. Except for convicting Hitlary for giving the order to All Them Islamist Terrists in Benghaziiiii!!!! to kill Chris Stevens, ain’t a whole lot that’s been “proven.” Oh, and her e-mails, of course.
rk
@Amaranthine RBG:
Rubbish! Monika Lewisnsky was 24. It literally was two consenting adults. He was an idiot and should have known better. She was also an idiot. But no where does she accuse Bill Clinton of sexual harassment. 24 year olds are responsible for their own actions. Paula Jones was pushed by the likes of Anne Coulter and the right wing media. Brodrick changed her story multiple times and Ken star of all people did not find her credible. There is a world of a difference between Bill Clinton and people like Roy Moore, Trump and Weinstein.
I don’t believe anything that anyone associated with the right wing says about Bill Clinton, because they’ve been saying all sorts of BS for the last 20 yrs. If I believed them then I have to believe that Bill and Hillary murdered Vince Foster, kidnapped multiple people, sold uranium to our enemies, ran pedophile rings……etc, etc. The list will stretch a mile. Why am I supposed to believe a woman accusing Clinton of rape when a prosecutor who spent years hounding Clinton looking for anything and everything came up with nothing. As it is Clinton was impeached for lying on the flimsiest of grounds. You think if there was even a minuscule amount of evidence with Brodrick that ken Star would have let it go?
Mart
@rk: Lewisnsky was 22, closer to 23. Not 24, not that it matters.
SFAW
@Mart:
It’s a film that ranks up there with the best of Kurosawa, Kubrick, Fellini, or Bergman.
Unfortunately, that’s Eddie Kurosawa, Sam Kubrick, Angelo Fellini, and Peter Bergman.
Mart
@SFAW: The internets say 91% like it. It is a John Carpenter cult classic. The film is so deep they still are interviewing Mr. Carpenter to let us know more about this masterpiece:
How did I miss this classic film?
rk
@Mart:
You’re right. I had to look it up because I always thought she was 24. Still an adult thought. I remember being annoyed at Bill Clinton for his stupidity. It totally derailed his presidency ignited in me a burning hatred for moral prudes. Just sickening to see Kelly Ann Conway, Anne, Coulter and a third blond (who died on 9/11) always on TV and always complaining about the Clintons. It was a cottage industry for the right wing and still is. I was young, but even then figured out that there was something seriously wrong with these blond women and old white men and their moral lecturing. Turned out I was right as we found out about Newt Gingrich, Dennis Hastert, Henry Hyde, Livingstone etc. But so many of them are still here and still spreading their poison.
Dmbeaster
@retr2327: Because Allred has always been a publicity hound first, with modest attorney skills.
Mart
@rk: Yes, she was a consenting adult, and Clinton was a dumb-ass. His pecker-dillo unleashed the full force of the crazy. To a point where our National Security Advisor to the President and his son sincerely believed Hillary and Podesta were running a child porn ring out of the basement of a pizza joint. A pizza joint with no basement. A child porn run by two of the most prominent multi-millionaires in the world, because that is what rich and famous people do.
JR
@Amaranthine RBG: there is a distinction separating Polanski and Moore from the rest, I think.
divF
@Earl: Pied.
satby
@dogwood: one standard is that Juanita Broaddrick claimed the event took place when she was 35, not 14. And she changed her story several times after first denying the allegations in a sworn affidavit in the Jones trial. So her credibility isn’t the greatest.
Vheidi
@Elizabelle: god, I always hated that f’ing song