Alabama seems to have narrowly avoided national shame today by not electing the Ayatollah of Alabama to the U.S. Senate.  News of the result in the Alabama special election was a relief with an aftertaste of hope.   Negative campaigning and bullying alone may not carry the day right now in American elections.    We’ve all had a long look at the results when the most adept at innuendo and insult attain high office.  Unaccountable, unqualified people in office, incompetent stewards of our resources and rights, doing a bad job.

Congratulations to Senator-elect Doug Jones, congratulations to the voters of Alabama.   Congratulations to the Alabama Election Commission for integrity and to the Alabama Secretary of State for not suppressing the vote to the extent that a fundamentalist Christian thug, twice removed from the bench by his fellow judges in Alabama for flagrant contempt of the Constitution, could be elected to represent you in Washington, D.C..  As I write this, with all 67 counties reporting, the projected margin of victory is less than 2%, currently less than 21,000 votes.  This one has been a squeaker.  It turns out the GOP was right to try to suppress black and Latino votes:  Jones got virtually all of the votes that “minorities” were able to cast in Alabama.  Moore had 70% of the white vote, naturally enough.

In a defense related to Moore’s dismissal of accusations by women he creeped out when they were teenagers, and he an adult assistant district attorney, I think Mike Huckabee’s daughter, the press secretary who replaced Sean Spicer, said it all yesterday in her defense of Donald Trump in the face of renewed allegations of unwanted sexual contact brought by now nineteen women.   It underscored the Trump/Moore lawless approach to governing and the rule of law.  She said, in essence: “y’all voted him into office and the question of if he did or did not years ago grope those women who are accusing him again now is irrelevant.”   Following her, eh, logic, I guess the fact that Moore was defeated means those women weren’t lying about his unwanted sexual attention when they were in high school.

I was delighted to find a complete transcript of the recent press conference where this issue was discussed fully provided on whitehouse.gov.

A grateful thank you to the Trump administration for this unexpected and very welcome example of full government transparency.  I wish the policies of Obama and Cheney had been anywhere near this transparent: 

Francesca.

Q    Thank you, Sarah.  I wanted to ask you about the women who came forward today against the President.  They first were on a television show and then they were at a press conference.  And they said that he should resign, and then also that there should be a congressional investigation.  And I know that you’ve said that this has already been litigated in the last election, but I wanted to get your specific reaction to this idea that there should be a congressional investigation into this.

MS. SANDERS:  Look, the President has addressed these accusations directly and denied all of these allegations. [1]  And this took place long before he was elected to be President. [2]   And the people of this country, at a decisive election, supported President Trump [3] , and we feel like these allegations have been answered through that process [4].

Kristen.

MS. SANDERS:  Sarah, thank you.  I want to follow up on that.  But first, a little bit of breaking news we just learned about:  The Pentagon apparently will now allow transgender people to enlist in the military beginning January 1st.  Your reaction to that?  And any follow-up action you’re going to take?

MS. SANDERS:  Yeah, as of right now, they’re simply complying with a court order and preparing to implement a previous policy to remain in compliance.  The Department of Justice is currently reviewing the legal options to ensure that the President’s directive can be implemented.  [5]

And for anything further and any specifics on both of those matters, I’d refer you to the Department of Defense and the Department of Justice.

Q    Okay, and one follow-up —

MS. SANDERS:  Sorry, Mara.

Q    One follow-up very quickly on — just very quickly, Sarah.

MS. SANDERS:  Sorry, Kristen.  Mara, go ahead.

Q    Can I just ask you about Nikki Haley’s comments saying that the President —

MS. SANDERS:  Mara, go ahead.

Q    I’ll pick that up for you, Kristen.

MS. SANDERS:  She’s going to pick it up for you.

Q    Nikki Haley, as I’m sure you know, said, when asked does the election mean that’s a settled issue — which you’ve been arguing from the podium here — she said, “I know he was elected, but women should always feel comfortable coming forward and we should all be willing to listen to them,” specifically referring to the accusers of the President.  Does the President agree with her?

MS. SANDERS:  Look, as the President said himself, he thinks it’s a good thing that women are coming forward, but he also feels strongly that a mere allegation shouldn’t determine the course.  And, in this case, the President has denied any of these allegations, as have eyewitnesses.  And several reports have shown those eyewitnesses also back up the President’s claim in this process.  [6]

And again, the American people knew this and voted for the President, and we feel like we’re ready to move forward in that process.

Q    But he thinks it’s a good thing that the women who accused him are coming forward now, again?

MS. SANDERS:  The President has said that it’s a good thing for women to be able to feel comfortable in coming forward, generally speaking.  [7]

Jacqueline.

Q    I just want to go off of that, Sarah.  But the President told Howard Stern in 2005 that he had walked into a teen beauty pageant dressing room where he said that teen contestants had no clothes on because he could sort of get away with things like that.  Is that not an admission of sexual harassmen

MS. SANDERS:  Look, the President has spoken about this directly.  I don’t have anything further to add on the process.

Q    And the American public —

MS. SANDERS:  We’re going to do one question today, guys, to move around.

Q    Two ISIS attacks in New York City — or ISIS-inspired attacks in New York City just recently.  Is the President concerned that there is a growing threat against people inspired by ISIS who have been radicalized online?

 

[1]  Trump responded that all the women telling similar stories about him are liars, threatened to sue all of them in court, claimed he never even met most of them and scoffed that half of the ones he did meet were dogs he’d never dream of trying to stick a finger up, the thought itself being repellant to him.    

[2]  And that matters why?

[3]  An election Trump lost by almost 3,000,000 votes and won by a razor thin 70,000 strategically placed votes in five key states that garnered an Electoral College margin of victory.

[4]  Sarah, how does the process of this narrow, brilliantly calculated and executed Electoral College victory have any relation to the question of whether or not Trump did what he boasted of?   Nineteen women tell similar stories about a groping, molesting person entirely consistent with the Boor-in-Chief’s public persona.   What does his magically narrow Electoral College defeat of an intensely disliked opponent have to do with whether he forced himself on these women?  

[5]  This item, while offered mainly to change the subject, means that Trump’s petulant, sensationalist tweet about banning transgender persons for the U.S. Armed Forces was just another impulsive presidential tweet and that there will be no change to existing law on the military’s policy of allowing transgender enlistment.

[6]  What on earth does this actually mean, Sarah?  Was Trump himself the eye witness who corroborates that he didn’t do what the women said he did?

[7] Although all the women who had accused him were, in fact, complete liars trying to cause irreparable harm to his good name, nasty women he promised to sue in court for defamation,  plus, he never met them, or if he did, most of them were dogs he wouldn’t molest with a ten foot poll.