We begin today’s roundup with Paul Waldman’s analysis of the election in Alabama over at The Week:
Anyone who tells you they know what is going to happen in the Alabama special election today is lying, either to you or themselves. But one thing's for sure: No matter what happens, we're going to be talking about Roy Moore for a long time
While Moore has his ardent fans, more than anything else, this election may wind up being the perfect embodiment of the common belief on the right that anything that makes liberals mad must be good. As Alabama columnist Kyle Whitmire recently wrote, "If The Washington Post ran a banner headline tomorrow saying, 'Antifreeze is poison, don't drink it,' a sizable number of Alabamians would be dead tomorrow."
You hear something similar in testimony from voter after voter: Sure, maybe Moore stalked malls and high schools preying on teenage girls, but what am I going to do — vote for a Democrat? It's the purest expression of negative partisanship, the tendency of voters on both sides to be motivated much more strongly by dislike of the other party than by affection for their own. In 2016, Donald Trump showed how powerful negative partisanship can be — he did no worse among Republican voters than Mitt Romney or John McCain did, despite all the misgivings so many of them supposedly had — and the Alabama election is providing an even more vivid illustration.
Olivia Nuzzi summarizes Roy Moore’s pre-election rally:
Have you ever traveled down a dirt path in rural southeast Alabama in December and arrived at a barn in the woods to find Steve Bannon, Representative Louie Gohmert, Sheriff David Clarke, Roy and Kayla Moore, a woman performing an interpretive dance in front of a tree, and several inflatable alligators?
Me neither. At least, I hadn’t until Monday evening, the night before the special election to fill the United States Senate seat vacated by Attorney General Jeff Sessions, when Moore and his wife came out of hiding in Midland City to talk about how much he hates the media and also how he has many black friends and one Jewish lawyer.
Jon Wiener at The Nation has an interview with former NYT editor and Alabama native Howell Raines:
JW: We feel like these charges of sexual crimes are overwhelmingly significant, but that Washington Post poll found that Roy Moore’s alleged sexual conduct was not the biggest issue in Alabama. When they asked likely voters, “What’s the most important issue to you?,” 41 percent said “health care,” and only 26 percent said “moral conduct.” Fourteen percent said “abortion,” and nothing else really counted.
HR: I read that 40 percent figure as a plus for Doug Jones. It shows that there has been some public education on the health-care issue, simply because so many Alabamians, particularly rural Alabamians of both races, have to have Medicaid coverage for their families and for the elderly who they are responsible for taking care of. The previous governor, who has been driven out of office by scandal, Robert Bentley, was adamantly opposed to taking Medicaid funds from the federal government, funds that Alabama was actually entitled to. He said that was because he, as a physician, didn’t want to have any hand in government-funded health care. I think it plays into Jones’s emphasis on what he calls kitchen-table issues. He says, “Let’s not argue about history and old divisions, or even about party. Let’s look at what we need to do to help middle-class families economically and on health care,” and things like that.
Amy Davidson Sorkin:
In less than a year in office, Trump has led the G.O.P. into situations and alliances so degraded that the Party may never fully recover, even as he watches an investigation into Russia’s possible interference in the 2016 election, led by Special Counsel Robert Mueller, move ever closer to his immediate circle. Last week, Donald Trump, Jr., refused to answer questions before the House Intelligence Committee about his conversations with his father, and a plea deal that Mueller struck with Michael Flynn, the former national-security adviser, indicates that Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, may be under scrutiny, too. Mueller may also have turned his attention to records related to Trump’s finances. Last Monday, the day that Trump endorsed Moore, Axios reported that one of the President’s lawyers, echoing Richard Nixon, had suggested that what might count as obstruction of justice for others would not in Trump’s case—because if the President does it, it isn’t really a crime. But each day dawns with a possibility that Trump will disgrace the Presidency more than he already has, whether he is insulting Native Americans or mangling relationships with our most trusted allies.
It would be inaccurate, though, to say that the President has acted alone, or without the coöperation of his party. There have been a few eloquent protests from members of Congress who are retiring or seem to think that they have nothing left to lose politically.
It would be inaccurate, though, to say that the President has acted alone, or without the coöperation of his party. There have been a few eloquent protests from members of Congress who are retiring or seem to think that they have nothing left to lose politically. After the Washington Post first published reports of Moore’s predation, several Republicans denounced him, and the Republican National Committee pulled out of a joint fund-raising agreement with him. But, last week, when Trump let the R.N.C. know that he was supporting Moore, it began pouring money into his campaign. “The President says jump and the RNC jumps,” a Party official told the Wall Street Journal.
Margaret Hartmann republishes and updates a post asking what happened to the 19 women who accused the president of misconduct:
A defamation suit filed by Summer Zervos, one of the accusers, has opened up the possibility that the women will get their day in court. Some have continued speaking out, hoping that away from the chaos of the election, people might be more willing to listen to their accounts. In December 2017 several women publicly aired their claims again, and called for a congressional investigation. “Let’s try round two,” said Samantha Holvey. “The environment’s different, let’s try again.” [...]
Here’s a reminder of what behavior the president has been accused of, including, when available, an update on how the women have continued trying to make their stories heard.
And we wrap up the roundup today with this piece by former chief counsel and staff director of the Senate and House ethics committees Robert L. Walker on what the Senate may be able to do should Moore win:
If Roy Moore wins Tuesday’s special election for U.S. Senate in Alabama, after he takes the oath of office the Senate will have the authority to begin an ethics investigation into allegations that Moore engaged in nonconsensual or assaultive sexual conduct going back to the 1960s. No rule or precedent would stand in the way of the Senate investigating and adjudicating the allegations against Moore through its bipartisan Select Committee on Ethics. No rule or precedent would prevent the full Senate from imposing a sanction commensurate with any proven offense. If he is elected and seated, the Senate will have the power — if it chooses to exercise it and if the evidence established through the ethics process supports the outcome — even to expel Moore. [...] If Moore is elected, his fellow senators will have the discretionary authority and power to commence ethics proceedings against him as soon as he takes his seat among them.