This mess just to Tennessee's southern border in the Alabama special election between Republican Roy Moore and Democrat Doug Jones to be the state's next United States senator is truly disgusting. The accusations are awful and would be characteristic of a sexual predator and a vile heart. Whether that information is ever proven or disproven, only time will tell. And, if true, there's no defense - ever - for these serial behaviors.
But, let's tease out a few facts to shed a small bit of light on a dark situation to see why some justifiably are cynical about this entire situation.
First, the allegations have enough details and consistency to prevent them from being completely dismissed - a man, then in his 30s, courting young women in high school, as young as 14 years old. Disgusting.
But, according to the timeline published in the March 23, 2008, Digital Journal, when Roy Moore left the Gadsden district attorney's office for an unsuccessful run as a Democrat for local judge in 1982, where were these women in this very town where these horrible events supposedly transpired? According to the Washington Post article that first reported the encounter of Moore at 32 years of age, he was pursuing underaged girls as far back as 1979, even as he was running for public office.
Robin SmithIn 1986, Moore ran again as a Democrat for district attorney in the town where he was, according to recent accounts, alleged to have predatory behavior. Again, where were these accounts of sexual perversion?
Finally, in 1992, Moore was recommended by the Etowah district attorney to whom he lost in the aforementioned Democratic primary, to fill a judicial vacancy in the area, despite "personal reservations about his character." Then-Alabama Gov. Guy Hunt, a Republican, appointed Moore, who switched political parties and first ran as a Republican in 1994.
So, there were multiple opportunities in the very county where these alleged horrors occurred for some who apparently had reservations about this man to stop him. But no public record of any such action exists.
Fast forward. Sexual predators and deviants exist and, according to training from the Department of Justice, are serial, or habitual, in their conduct. Yet, suddenly, after 38 years, Roy Moore is publicly tried in the press. Despite countless news accounts of similar allegations made against Bill Clinton while serving as president of the United States and during his ascent to the position of leader of the free world, charges were dismissed and declared false and conspiratorial. No, two disgusting wrongs don't make a right, but double standards sure prevail, depending on politics and power.
How was President Bill Clinton treated by the press and the public about his extensive list of sexual encounters, even with subordinates and with one accusation of rape? In a Feb. 23, 1999, simulcast of the Don Imus Radio Show on MSNBC, Dan Rather of CBS News was being interviewed. Imus, the host, inquired about the allegations that NBC had the story of Juanita Broaddrick, the alleged Clinton rape victim from his days as Arkansas attorney general, yet the network refused to run the story.
The news anchor offered his response in defense of the network, "... even if it does it turn out to be true, it happened a long time ago." Interesting contrast, right?
Today, the line between fact and fiction grows pathetically faint, especially when politics are involved. Selective information and not facts, along with opportunism, permit hit-jobs that cloud the truth on both sides of the political aisle. This serves no good.
Robin Smith, a former Tennessee Republican Party chairwoman, owns Rivers Edge Alliance.