EDITORIAL It was close, but Ala. avoided a huge embarrassment
It really shouldn’t have been close.
The Alabama U.S. Senate race to fill the vacancy created when Jeff Sessions became attorney general pitted Democrat Doug Jones, a former prosecutor who got justice for four African-American girls killed by Klansmen, against Roy Moore, a twice-removed-for-dereliction-of-duty state judge who became best known during the campaign for the allegations of more than a half dozen women who claimed he made sexual advances on them when they were underage and he was well into adulthood.
And yet, when the choice was so stark, so clear, it was still believed that Moore had a very good chance of winning Tuesday’s election. Fortunately for all of America, it was Jones who pulled out victory by a very narrow margin.
What that tells us is there are still a lot of voters in Alabama who would rather elect a suspected child-sex abuser than a Democrat. It also tells us that there are a lot of people on the Christian right for whom Christian teachings and principles take a back seat to pure politics.
So, we have a Democrat heading to D.C. to represent Alabama in the Senate for the first time in decades, and Republicans in that state have only themselves to blame. Had they instead nominated Luther Strange, appointed as caretaker of the Sessions seat until the special election could be held, it’s likely the GOP would have retained the post.
Much to the chagrin of Fox News, the Moore candidacy also renewed attention to the many allegations of sexual impropriety against President Trump.
One can only imagine the howling from Fox had it been President Obama who had been married three times and had a long string of sex-related allegations trailing behind him. But when it comes to this president, they are apologists. Situational ethics, once again.
Republicans, of course, point to the sexual misdeeds, admitted and alleged, by President Bill Clinton, and to the stand-by-her-man, enabling approach of Hillary Clinton.
The Clintons are absolutely worthy of condemnation in this regard – there are enough skeletons in that closet to mount a pretty long chorus line – but Republicans can’t have it both ways. If you’re going to pillory the Clintons, you have to put your president’s feet to the fire and demand a full investigation of the claims against him. There’s an old saying that where there’s smoke, there’s fire, and Trump is engulfed in smoke.
As for the Senate race, what does it really mean for Democrats and Republicans going forward? Some see it as a repudiation of President Trump and a sign that resurgent Democrats are going to lay waste to Republicans in the mid-term elections next year. We’d say, not so fast.
It won’t be often that Republican primary voters will nominate a general election candidate with as much smelly baggage as Roy Moore, and it is still incumbent on Democrats to field candidates who will appeal to voters in races across the nation.
At the same time, Republicans must learn that there are consequences when they nominate people who are far to the right of the mainstream, even if the Republican mainstream already is well right of where it was just a decade ago.
Some on the far right wing of the party are complaining that leaders of the GOP such as Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell cost Moore the election by backing away from him after the sex allegations arose, but McConnell, as partisan as any Republican in Congress, simply recognized that embracing Moore could have long-lasting, damaging effects on the party’s prospects next year and beyond.
In closing, we’ll offer a muted congratulations to the voters of Alabama for barely avoiding what would have been a monumental embarrassment.