Why can’t Alabamians be rid of Roy Moore?
The abundance of allegations against the Republican nominee for the state’s open U.S. Senate seat are damning. There’s the November 9 allegation from Leigh Corfman in The Washington Post that Moore, the former Alabama Supreme Court judge, sexually abused her when she was 14. There are allegations from several other women around Gadsden, Alabama, that Moore sought their affections while he was in his 30s and they were teenagers, allegations Moore has not flatly denied. There is also Beverly Young Nelson, who claims Moore attempted to rape her when she was 16, and who provided proof that Moore, then 30, signed her high-school yearbook.
Then there are reports from several named sources around the town that Moore’s flirting with teenagers was “common knowledge,” confirmation of that common knowledge from a former colleague, and a story from the New Yorker that Moore had been banned from both the Gadsden Mall and YMCA for pursuing teenage girls as an adult.Yet, if the Alabama special election for that Senate seat were held today, Moore would still be on the ballot as the Republican-endorsed candidate, and recent polling shows that even now victory against Democratic opponent Doug Jones wouldn’t be a surprise. Moore himself has shown no signs that he is willing at all to even consider stepping aside, telling FoxNews’s Sean Hannity last week that “I don't remember dating any girl without the permission of her mother,” and that the allegations were a coordinated smear against his campaign.