By Josh Moon
Alabama Political Reporter
The Roy Moore saga has jumped the shark.
The exact moment this thing became too absurd for even Alabama is hard to pinpoint, but it definitely occurred during Thursday’s 20-person condescension-fest and press preachin’. Probably around the time they welcomed to the stage “The Activist Mommy blogger,” a middle-aged mother of 10 from Ohio whose expertise in Alabama political issues stems, apparently, from writing hateful things on a blog.
That was a wrap for me.
We’re officially at an impasse in this Roy Moore scandal.
Oh, sure, there will be more women who step forward with allegations — and maybe worse — but there is no ground to be made up either way.
Either you think Roy Moore is a holy Christian warrior sent by God himself to save this nation from destruction at the hands of equality and children’s healthcare, or you think that Moore is a self-involved, egotistical fruitcake who had a Wooderson-level affinity for high school girls.
There’s no middle ground anymore.
Thursday’s press conference, which was the equivalent of two hours of Moore supporters sticking their fingers in their ears and screaming “lalalalalala,” proved that much if nothing else.
Actually, let me correct one thing, because it 100 percent was NOT a press conference.
It was a Bible-off between a bunch of glory-seeking evangelists-for-hire, who spent 100 minutes coming up with insulting and demeaning ways to dismiss the claims of sexual abuse and inappropriate behavior that have been aimed at Moore.
That included one woman — and you’ll have to forgive me, but I didn’t catch the name of her blog — who announced that she only wanted to focus on “facts,” and then proceeded to state that the signature in Moore’s accuser’s yearbook was “obviously fake.”
Because of course it is.
Leigh Corfman, the woman who accused Moore of molesting her when she was 14 and he was 32, got no break, either. You would think a bunch of holy people might be slowed by claims of sex abuse against a child. But you would be wrong. They went right at her, with one speaker saying, erroneously, that Corfman’s mother called her a liar and with several others casting a wide net of doubt on any allegation made by Corfman or the other eight women.
But the attacks didn’t stop there.
There were lots of shots at gay people and transgenders. Communists — and who knew we had so many — didn’t fare well. The media was full of fake news. Swamps were in need of draining. And everyone who has ever said a bad thing about Roy Moore was, of course, anti-Christian. That includes John McCain and Mitch McConnell, according to one guy.
This was not exactly a homegrown event, either.
One of the speakers was from Missouri. Another from North Carolina. Two from Ohio. One from Colorado.
This did not deter any of them from demanding that Alabama voters not be swayed by outside influences. I’m not sure I’ve witnessed a more complete display of community cognitive dissonance in my life.
It was all just so … pathetic. This room full of condescending, self-righteous bigots who profess to carry the word of a man who decried such hatefulness and division, all hired to stand before a microphone and say nice things about a man who may or may not have tried to rape a 14-year-old.
And here’s the worst part: That pathetic display will go over well with Moore’s base ultra-Christian supporters.
They don’t care about the facts or the details contained within those “fake news” Washington Post stories or the “lying” accusers who are only doing this because “Bernie Bernstein” from the Washington Post offered them $7,000 for damaging info on Moore.
Roy Moore and his cult are back on their political island, where they feel most comfortable. It’s them against the world — their faux Christian soldier leading them into battle against the forces of evil.
It doesn’t matter to them that none of this makes sense. Like when Moore refused to answer questions because no one was asking him about policy. This same guy has spent the last three months — after he admitted during a radio interview that he didn’t know what DACA is — dodging all requests for interviews and failing to respond to numerous questions about specific policy issues.
And not for nothing, but Moore also refused to debate his challenger, Doug Jones, because — and this is mindboggling — he and Jones have views that are too different. I sort of thought that was the point.
But his people don’t care. Roy Moore’s going to roll towards Dec. 12 with his base of supporters and see if it’s enough to win.
And no truth, honor or common decency is going to deter them.
