More On Roy Moore...

The right, and by right I am referring to the far right. Those who spend time distracting from the importance of the issue by bringing up Bill Clinton, George Takei, or some other incidence of democratic sexual misconduct as though that makes it okay if in fact the allegations are ultimately shown to be true.

Sexual misconduct is always wrong, regardless whether the sexual predator is a conservative, a liberal, a republican, or a democrat. It is especially egregious when the predator holds a position of power and influence over a younger individual, such as was the case with Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky.

Roy Moore, an adult male in a position of influence and power allegedly pursued under age teenagers, one as young 14. The allegation states that Moore, while not forcing sexual intercourse did unclothe and touch touch the young teenager inappropriately. Moore was in his early 30's at the time these alleged encounters allegedly occurred.

As the statute of limitations has long since passed by, Moore cannot be criminally prosecuted for these allegations even if they true. The only court left open at this time is the court of public opinion.

What is troubling is that so many on the right rush to discount the allegations of several women and rush to defend Moore. It seems reasonable, at least to folks who have no skin in the game to at gather all the information from as many sources as are available and then make a reasoned decision based on all the available information. This what we hope the voters of Alabama do if Roy Moore continues his race for the open Senate seat.

Now a bit more information everyone ought to consider.

From THE HILL - A former colleague of GOP Senate candidate Roy Moore said Saturday that it was "common knowledge" that the Alabama Republican dated high school girls when he worked in the Etowah County District Attorney's Office in the 1980s.

In a statement to CNN, Teresa Jones, who served as deputy district attorney for Etowah County, Ala., from 1982 until 1985, said that multiple people thought it was unusual that Moore dated high school girls, but that no one ever raised the matter with him.

"It was common knowledge that Roy Moore dated high school girls, everyone we knew thought it was weird," Jones told CNN. "We wondered why someone his age would hang out at high school football games and the mall ... but you really wouldn't say anything to someone like that."

Moore, now 70, served as the assistant district attorney for Etowah County from 1977 until 1982.
Jones's comments come two days after an explosive Washington Post report detailed allegations that Moore pursued sexual and romantic relationships with teenage girls when he was in his early 30s.
 
One of Moore's accusers, Leigh Corfman, told the Post that the former Alabama Supreme Court justice initiated a sexual encounter with her in 1979, when she was just 14 and he was 32.

Moore has vehemently denied Corfman's allegation. But in an interview on Sean Hannity's radio program on Friday, he did not rule out that he dated girls in their late teens when he was in his 30s, saying that he did not remember doing so.

On Saturday, in his first public appearance since The Washington Post report was published, Moore said that the allegations were politically motivated, and that he had never engaged in any sort of sexual misconduct.

Still, the allegations have prompted condemnation from many Republican lawmakers and officials, who have called on Moore to step aside in Alabama's special Senate election if the accounts are true.

From LAW NEWZ - Embattled Alabama Senate Republican candidate Roy Moore once cast the lone vote in favor of a man accused of raping a four-year-old boy.

In 2015, Roy Moore was performing his second stint as a justice sitting on the Alabama Supreme Court–Moore was previously removed from office for ignoring a federal court order mandating the removal of a Ten Commandments monument from the state judicial building.

The Alabama Supreme Court had the opportunity to hear the case of one Eric Lemont Higdon, a man accused and convicted of two sodomy charges due to sexual assault against a four-year-old at Mama’s Place Christian Academy in Clay, Alabama.

One of those convictions was first-degree sodomy of a child less than 12 years old. The other conviction was first-degree sodomy by forcible compulsion. Essentially, the first conviction was for statutory rape; the second for forcible rape.

Higdon’s conviction on the forcible rape charge was eventually overturned on appeal. The state, by way of prosecutor Luther Strange, appealed that decision and the Alabama Supreme Court took the case up for review.

Eight of the nine justices on the panel found that the appeals court had erred. Their legal logic was such that a 17-year-old’s sexual assault of a four-year-old was enough to produce in the mind of the four-year-old, an “implied threat of serious physical injury.”  The decision was reversed and remanded and Higdon’s conviction was reinstated.

Roy Moore dissented from that opinion. He wrote:

Because there was no evidence in this case of an implied threat of serious physical injury…or of an implied threat of death, Higdon cannot be convicted of sodomy in the first degree “by forcible compulsion.”

Distracting from the seriousness of the allegations and refusing to consider all information that better informs the public, especially the voters of Alabama, seems illogical, irrational, and motivated by blind partisan loyalty to what one cannot imagine.

If these allegations ultimately are shown beyond a reasonable doubt to be true should American, God fearing or otherwise want such a man in the United States Senate? It will be for the people of Alabama to decide. Hopefully they consider all the information and sort out the facts as best they can.