GOP Bailing on Roy Moore

By The Wall Street Journal. . .There is no doubt a sense in which Mr. Moore deserves the opportunity to challenge accusations against him for acts alleged to have happened more than 30 years ago. Though too many women were too easily ignored in the past, we do not want to live in a country or political culture in which every accusation of sexual misconduct is automatically accepted as true. Accusers can be liars too . . .

Some of Mr. Moore’s presumed colleagues in the Senate have said they believe the women and that the judge should withdraw. Colorado’s Cory Gardner has suggested that even if Mr. Moore wins, the Senate should vote to expel him from the body. It’s a rare candidate who achieves that degree of political abandonment . . .

There is one other obvious loser in this debacle: Former White House aide Steve Bannon. Some have argued that the Bannon insurgency against the Republican “establishment” is in the mode of earlier party challenges led by Ronald Reagan or Newt Gingrich. This one isn’t close. The populism of Reagan and Mr. Gingrich was always about building the conservative movement into a majority that could govern and change the country.

The Bannonites have given no evidence or argument that they are aiming that high. They want to defeat the existing majority—a conservative majority by any historical standard—mainly to show that they can depose Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. (Read more from “GOP Bailing on Roy Moore” HERE)

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RNC Cuts off Moore

By Alex Isenstadt. The Republican National Committee is withdrawing its support for besieged Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moore, leaving him increasingly isolated as he confronts charges of sexual misconduct with teenagers.

The RNC is pulling out of a joint fundraising agreement it had with Moore, according to a senior party official briefed on the decision. It is also canceling a field program it had set up ahead of the state’s Dec. 12 special election. The committee had about a dozen paid canvassers in Alabama working for Moore. It will no longer transfer any money to the race . . .

The move comes as the party intensifies its effort to pressure Moore out of the race. On Monday, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell called on the candidate to “step aside.” McConnell also said he believed the accounts of Moore’s female accusers, who told the Washington Post that Moore pursued them when they were teenagers and he was in his 30s. (Read more from “RNC Cuts off Moore” HERE)

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