As the split between the “if true, he’s out” and the “if true, so what?” GOP plays out, here are some current and former Republicans. I don't know what will happen in AL sen race. I do know I won't insult AL by assuming they're all like Moore. Jones has a chance.
Jennifer Rubin/WaPo:
The GOP can’t be rebranded. Let’s junk it.
How could one “rebrand” this, or trust these people again? I find it hard to imagine how. So the future of the GOP? It’s either a nationalist front party or a battleground mostly between Trumpists and strident ultra-right-wingers whose platform (repeal Obamacare; corporate tax cuts; reckless foreign policy that imagines war with Iran and/or North Korea are viable options) is unacceptable to the vast majority of the country. It’s not a civil war in which I’d have a favorite side.
In short, the GOP, I think, is kaput. The real question is what sprouts up to fill some of that space, the ground occupied by those who favor reform conservatism; responsible internationalism; free trade and robust immigration; tolerance and the rule of law; and market economics with an ample safety net. I don’t have the answer. I only know it cannot be the GOP.
Ed Rogers/WaPo:
Roy Moore wreaks havoc in Alabama and beyond
Anyway, Moore is more than just another embarrassment produced by Alabama politics. His presence has had profound national implications. Specifically, a traditionally safe Republican seat will likely flip to the Democrats.
The fact is, as Josh Holmes told the New York Times: “This is what happens when you let reckless, incompetent idiots like Steve Bannon go out and recruit candidates who have absolutely no business running for the U.S. Senate.” I won’t go so far as to suggest Moore’s rise is entirely due to Bannon — after all, Bannon only jumped on the Moore train a few weeks out from the election. But the presence of people like Moore and Bannon in the American political space is dangerous. Republicans everywhere need to say so and make clear that there is no justification for supporting Moore.
This wouldn’t be an issue if they immediately dumped him. Instead, some held off, others rallied. Bad move. He’s yours, now.
Jonathan Allen/NBC:
Roy Moore could do more damage to the GOP brand than an Alabama Senate seat is worth.
That's a major concern for Republicans as Moore tries to weather allegations, reported by the Washington Post, that he initiated a sexual encounter with a 14-year-old girl in 1979 when he was 32, and others in the GOP try to figure out how best to handle the political bombshell.
Max Boot/USA Today:
Roy Moore response shows GOP deserves to die
In the final analysis, no indictment of their candidate will convince the faithful. As Trump once said, “I could stand in the middle of 5th Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn’t lose voters.” Or, more to the point, Roy Moore could molest a 14-year-old girl and not lose votes. Because for Republican partisans, their opponents are “the forces of evil,” and anything is preferable to that. Even Donald Trump. Even Roy Moore. So in ostensibly fighting evil, Republicans have become complicit in it.
This is a party that does not deserve to survive.
Nancy French/waPo:
What it’s like to watch men like Roy Moore as a conservative and as a sex abuse survivor
The evil of sexual predators is that they attack the weak, make them weaker, then discredit them because of their weakness. These arrogant monsters go on to bigger and better things, leaving a collection of wounded people in their wake. But these victims, one by one, are coming forward anyway — well aware that they’ll be mocked and disbelieved, well aware that some will scrutinize their lives more harshly than their predators’.