Posted on 12/13/2017 4:17:14 AM PST by reaganaut1
Alabama voters can be forgiven if they preferred to sit out Tuesday’s special Senate election, but those who turned out narrowly elected Democrat Doug Jones to fill the seat vacated by Attorney General Jeff Sessions. The result is a painful lesson for the Alabama Republicans who nominated Roy Moore in the September primary. But it’s also a useful act of political hygiene for the national Republican Party given the accusations of sexual misconduct against the former judge.
The cost of defeat will be high and immediate. Despite his campaign vows to “cross the aisle” to work with Republicans, Mr. Jones will fit right in with Senate Democrats. He will be a reliable vote for Chuck Schumer on any important matter, including judicial nominees. Had he shown even a scintilla of moderation on abortion, for example, he would have won in a rout.
Mr. Moore’s defeat narrows the GOP majority’s margin to 51-49, which will give even more leverage to individual Senators who want to grandstand or satisfy a political constituency. Alabama evangelical Christians who supported Mr. Moore over appointed Sen. Luther Strange in the GOP primary should know that they have now made a conservative Supreme Court nominee less likely if Justice Anthony Kennedy retires in 2018. Senators Lisa Murkowski and Susan Collins will hold the balance of judicial confirmation power, and watch the media lobby them in waves.
The good news is that Mr. Moore's loss may give the GOP a better chance of holding the Senate majority next year. Democrats were primed to make Mr. Moore a national symbol of sexual harassment to drive turnout among women. GOP incumbents would have been asked about Mr. Moore every day.
(Excerpt) Read more at wsj.com ...
Gotta keep that free and unlimited abortion going, right? Keep those borders wide-open , right? Gotta keep the entire Third World on the American worker’s wages, right? Gotta have Amnesty uber alles, right? Gotta keep the Deep State comfortably in power, right?
Yeh those “Evangelicals” are THE problem in this sick and dying country.
Probably a correct analysis
Moore may have also been the worst Senate candidate I’ve seen in years. Political philosophy is critical, but if never pays to back a tone-deaf, amateurish loser in a major political campaign.
Do you think Moore would have lost if the sexual allegations weren’t there ?
I think not
We need to deal with immigration first. All other issues can wait.
We needed somebody who would vote to confirm Trump’s judicial picks. All other issues are secondary.
You’re probably right, but Donald Trump overcame similar allegations in a national election with voters who were far less conservative than those in Alabama.
They made another appearance in the media this week.
Trump didn’t have the GOPe and conservative hosts backing the women’s charges like Moore did
This election de-fogged the path for the midterms. Many critical lessons learned if we want to keep up the MAGA.
I agree, Moore was on our side but also an albatross. The other good thing is this will focus the mind and money on Bannon’s side. There will be plenty of great candidates that we can support and the WAPO can only create so many fictional stories. For one thing, not every candidate dated young women when they were in their early 30’s.
Trump admitted that the women wanted him and he responded. But those women were his peers. The women were after Trump just as much as vv. Moore’s dating of young women may be fine, especially in his day and circumstances. But after some ambiguous statements he denied the dating. But of course the Post knew they could get him on it and played their cards (some invented, some real) quite well.
I woke up to the news this morning and found myself wondering how many voting irregularities there were
Moore did not lose because Jones won, Moore lost because the republican voters did not turn out for him. I doubt there were many conservative GOP votes that went to Jones.
Some of your points are good ones but I think you’re reading too much into this. The way I see it, Moore had all the credentials as a conservative candidate but was a terrible candidate on the campaign trail. Anyone who donated to his campaign ought to sue him for fraud just for that idiotic trip to Philadelphia three days before the election ... TO WATCH AN ‘EFFING FOOTBALL GAME.
Gonna have to ignore most of these - there will be many and responding to each one will unnecessarily raise the bile level....
I’m sick and tired of outsider pontificating on Roy Moore’s loss. If you aren’t from Alabama you do not understand why this happened. Moore’s loss was not due to Steve Bannon or Mitch McConnel, although Mitch McConnel was directly responsible for Moore winning the nomination.
Mitch McConnel threw millions of dollars into trashing Mo Brooks in the primary while virtually ignoring Roy Moore. No one liked the way Luther Strange was appointed and everyone knew he was a swamp critter, but he might very well have won if Mitch had stayed out of it. The avalanche of anti Brooks ads did manage to kill any chance Brooks might have had, but had the unintended consequence of suppressing turnout by potential Strange voters because they were disgusted by the obvious GOPe play. This allowed Moore’s hard core base to rise to the top. Mitch did it again against Moore in the runoff virtually assuring Moore the nomination.
Moore’s only claim to fame was his 10 Commandments stand. He started out by putting them on the wall in his Etowah County courtroom generating outrage by the liberal media, then parleyed that into winning election to the Alabama Supreme Court. He continued his grandstanding by placing a 10 Commandments monument at the Alabama Supreme Court and
defying court orders to remove it, leading to his removal from the bench. He failed when he tried to run for governor then managed to win election again to the Alabama Supreme Court where he was again removed for defying court decisions on gay marriage. His grandstanding has won him a core of support among single issue voters, but Alabama isn’t quite as redneck as the national media would lead you to believe. We are conservative but we (excepting Roy Moore’s base) are pragmatic.
Yesterday I went to the polls, held my nose and voted for Roy Moore because, as President Trump said, we need the seat. I came very close to staying home, not because of the accusations against Roy Moore, but because I have always considered Roy Moore to be the political equivalent of a TV preacher. Moore lost because many Republicans simply couldn’t stand the stench and stayed home. Pretty much everyone thought Moore would win, so voters felt comfortable standing by their principles and staying home...oops! The “November Surprise” probably cost him the election, but it shouldn’t have been close, and with ANY other Republican it would have been a landslide.
Doug Jones will be in office until the 2020 election and will lose in a landslide. Take it to the bank.
I’m no rino, but I think Roy Moore’s loss is a blessing in disguise. Had Moore won, the non-stop screeching by the media of “party of the pedophile, perverts” would have been a major drain on President Trump’s agenda.
Take back Alabama 2020.
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