Moore harassment scandal spreads to 2018 battle for Congress

[DonViejo]

Source: Politico




Democrats seize on the scandal to put GOP candidates on defense, though Al Franken has complicated their efforts.

By KEVIN ROBILLARD and GABRIEL DEBENEDETTI 11/19/2017 06:52 AM EST

Roy Moore's sexual misconduct scandal is metastasizing beyond Alabama into the 2018 battle for Congress.

Democrats have quickly seized on accusations that the Republican Senate hopeful assaulted and harassed teenage girls, trying to lash other GOP hopefuls to the reeling Alabama candidate and use the outcry to raise money.

"This is precisely what we've warned about when discussing the importance of election quality candidates in GOP primaries," said Josh Holmes, a former chief of staff to McConnell. "The opposition will ascribe their liabilities to candidates all across the country."

Democrats are hardly irreproachable on the sexual harassment issue. The allegation Thursday that Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) forcibly kissed a woman against her will a decade ago could complicate attempts to use Moore against other Republicans. Franken now faces a likely ethics investigation into his conduct, and a slew of Democrats have donated campaign cash from Franken’s leadership PAC to charity.

Read more: https://www.politico.com/story/2017/11/19/roy-moore-harassment-scandal-2018-congress-245553

[madaboutharry]

1. I am angry at Democrats who reacted with the typical knee jerk reaction.

Sometimes democrats can be typical politicians, doing things for optics rather than wanting to get the facts and make sense of things.

Tammy Baldwin really pissed me off getting on television within hours to announce she was giving money away. What a coward.

Now more of the truth is beginning to come out. I hope they all feel like the opportunists they are. They all jumped on the "look at me, I am standing up for women no matter what!" That's right, no matter taking a little time to find out what actually happened.

Sen. Franken is the victim of a right wing smear job.

[beachbum bob]

2. what did Franken apologize for?

I am confused if he is a "victim" why the apology? People make mistakes in judgement, they acknowledge and move on...its the immoral ones that never atone for their mistakes in judgement. What Franken did or didn't do really is of little impact vs Roy Moore and his actions of sexual stalking and bending the law to give rapist more sympathy than the rape victim. The 2 acts are no where near the same.

If we want Moore's acts to be a 2018 campaign issue, so let it be. I rather wage war against those who embrace sexual predators any day of the week

[madaboutharry]

3. I think it is because he wanted to take the high road

rather than get into a drawn out "he said/she said" dialogue. I think he called for the ethics investigation to give himself the forum to defend himself rather than in news bites.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

4. It was an apology without admitting guilt. He said his memory was different from hers.

It was not what the RW radio station she hosts was prepared for, nor Roger Stone's team of dirty tricksters.

By catching them off guard it made it easy to contrast it with Moore and highlight the extreme differences. That, and his call to the Ethics Committee to investigate himself, went a long way to defusing the issue. It is "being dealt with". And the investigation won't go very deep or long until it finds that nothing can be verified and there is nothing for the Senate to take action on, except perhaps a mild caution.

The media will try to equalize the two cases because they do that for profit and advertising dollars. But it won't work in the long run, whereas Moore is a never-ending stain on the GOP Republicons until he is defeated or expelled (if he wins).

Al Franken is very smart, in my opinion.