I believe Judge Roy Moore
I believe Judge Roy Moore
http://www.alreporter.com/wp-content.../moore05-2.jpgBy Brandon Moseley
By Brandon Moseley
Alabama Political Reporter
I prefer the grind of every day reporting to sharing my opinions with the readers. I let Bill, Josh and Joey focus on the opinion writing, which they do so well. This time I will make an exception. We are now in the start of the third day of a carefully orchestrated character assassination of the Republican nominee for the U.S. Senate, Judge Roy Moore.
If we are to believe his accusers, Roy Moore dated a number of 16, 17 and 18-year-old young ladies in the late 1970s. As I read the current law, it is perfectly legal to have consensual sexual contact with a 16-year-old in Alabama. That is not considered abuse or a crime. It is still legal, and likely was in 1979, and most of the accusers say that their dates with Moore never got much more exciting than some kissing and Moore playing his guitar. One of the ladies, who was 18 at the time, says that Moore served her alcohol. Alabama did not raise the drinking age to 21 until 1984.
The most troubling allegation is that Roy Moore went out with a 14 year old, took the willing young lady to his trailer where he removed her shirt and her pants and then there was some touching of private parts through the underwear. When she got uncomfortable with it, she shut it down, and that was that. It is illegal to have sexual contact with 14 year olds. I am not a lawyer and have never seen what the Alabama statute read during the Jimmy Carter administration. But according to my lay reading of current Alabama law – which admittedly was written 27 years after this alleged incident, that act today would likely be sexual abuse, a Class A misdemeanor. One attorney has already told me that he does not think we even had a sexual abuse statute on the books in 1979. This is a 38-year-old cold case of an incident that may or may not have happened. This is never going to see any court.
That being said, how can any of us really know what might have happened in a trailer in Etowah County in 1979? Those of us who want to believe the best in Roy Moore believe his account and think the WaPo story is false.
Those of us who want to believe the worst about Roy Moore will believe the worst about Roy Moore and are inclined to believe his accuser. If we are all intellectually honest, we don’t have any video, DNA evidence, eyewitness accounts — other than Moore and the accuser, the testimony is 38 years old, so facts blur.
Roy Moore is innocent until he is proven guilty, and I don’t see this case ever being brought to trial. We just have to accept that we are never really going to know with any certainty what happened on that day in 1979, or if the two even met that day.
We now have had three days of histrionics about this in the mainstream media. Every talking head on cable news has an opinion on this, even though most of them have never stepped foot in Alabama, have never met any of us, including Judge Moore or his accusers, and will move on from this story when it plays out, or they find something more titillating for them to chatter about in front of the cameras.
Again, I — unlike any of them — have actually met Judge Moore and have known him, either through my journalistic work or through Republican politics for almost 20 years. Judge Moore believes what he says he believes, and I trust him on this.
The once respected Washington Post has changed ownership and has become the leftist version of the right’s Breitbart News, an increasingly low-brow publication that aligns itself with progressive causes and the Democratic Party. In this story, they have hit a dangerous new low for political journalism. If you like their reporting, send them a check so they will let you through their paywall.
Going 38 years back into the past to talk to the former girlfriends or boyfriends of a political candidate — or people who claim to be former love interests of candidates — is incredibly sleazy, and it is disgusting that the editors at the Post thought this was somehow a newsworthy endeavor for them to pursue.
I like Roy Moore, and I am certainly not going to vote for Roy Moore’s opponent, Clinton-era U.S. Attorney Doug Jones (D). I have nothing personal against Jones. I just think his positions and ideas are far too liberal for Alabama to seriously consider for even one moment.
Even though I would like to see Moore win and Jones lose, I will swear to all the readers right here and now, that I, as a journalist, will never stoop to interviewing any of Jones’ former girlfriends from before his marriage. I don’t know whom Doug took to the prom. I don’t want to know where they went after the prom, and I don’t want to know what age his date was or if he tried to initiate sexual contact or not, and who touched who where and what clothes were removed and by whom.
With the exception of those of you who are test tube babies, all of us are here because our moms, at least once in their lives, let our dads do what dads wanted to do all along. I hope that was not an upsetting revelation to anyone.
Roy Moore never claimed that he was God, and neither did he ever claim that he is without sin. I never thought that the kinds of things that happen in human mating rituals was news and never thought that the candidates’ premarital love lives were the sort of thing that we as investigative journalists should really devote our time and talents toward exposing in such detail.
I know there is a market for voyeuristic celebrity gossip out there. I let TMZ and People Magazine cater to that market, and apparently, the Post wants to colonize that space now, as well.
I know that I am getting old, and my ways are not as ‘hip’ as some people’s in this business, but at its core, this business is supposed to be about news. We report about real people, real issues, real policies in the now.
The sexual adventures of Roy Moore after he got home from fighting for us in Vietnam is not a topic I ever thought would be a headline here or anywhere else. Thank you, Washington Post, for becoming a more sleazy version of the National Enquirer. What’s next? Ranking all the former love interests of Presidents Bill Clinton and Donald Trump?
I would not want my byline associated with this kind of gossip-level reporting in any way. None of this is relevant to my life, and none of it is relevant to anybody’s lives here and now in the state of Alabama.
We have real problems. We have real issues. There are things I want to see done by the federal government in the next four years. What do you believe we should be doing on health care, on taxes, on immigration, on the border wall, on reforming Washington D.C., on protecting religious liberties, on guns?
I will be voting for Roy Moore because he is the candidate most likely to pass tax reform, vote to cut down on out-of-control immigration policies, confirm conservative judges. Why would anyone change their vote based on these accusations? You either agree with Roy Moore’s views on the issues, or you agree with Doug Jones’ views. This sensationalized journalism I don’t think has any place in a rational person’s decision-making process.
You vote for the person with the agenda closest to your own. For me, that is Roy Moore.
Moore is the candidate who will vote to confirm conservative selections to the Supreme Court; steadfastly defend our Second Amendment rights; vote for Republican budgets that make America great again by increasing defense spending; keeping Alabamians employed in defense sector jobs; fight for religious liberty; and oppose abortion.
Doug Jones posted pictures of himself partying with Planned Parenthood. Jones will not fight to protect the lives of millions of pre-born Americans; support President Donald J. Trump’s agenda; vote to repeal Obamacare; fight to repeal Obama administration era regulations that shut down American coal jobs and sent our jobs overseas; fight to decrease the regulatory state; or advance conservatism. Moore is the conservative candidate. Moore is the pro-life candidate.
A vote for Jones puts Chuck Schumer, Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders one vote closer to control of the U.S. Senate, and the current Republican majority is just two seats.
Whatever you believed happened 38 years ago, that should not sway Alabamians from voting for the candidate who most closely shares our conservative Alabama values, and that is Roy Moore. Don’t be swayed by emotion or the mainstream media. They do not share any of our Alabama values and do not care about us or our beliefs. They have made that abundantly clear over the years.
It is time for Republicans and conservatives to vote with our brains and not be swayed by media hysteria and the politics of personal destruction.
http://www.alreporter.com/2017/11/11...dge-roy-moore/
