The Perfect Storm

Take this:

MSNBC contributor Jonathan Capehart got the ball rolling, stating, “This whole thing is so other worldly that the Republican Party I thought I knew they were, evangelicals, god fearing, upright, moral — all of that now gone. It’s one more piece of evidence of just how far the Republican Party has gotten away from the Republican Party.”

“There’s a story that people who worked with Roy Moore knew that he frequently would date teenagers and that he was known to hang around places where teenagers would hang out,” the AM Joy host offered. “He’d troll football games looking for dates.”

After sharing a clip of Breitbart founder Steve Bannon attacking Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) for not standing up for Moore, Rubin weighed in on the state of the GOP.

“That’s the mentality of things that are going on,” an animated Rubin began. “You have a Republican Party that’s devolved into tribalism. Whatever they have to do: lie, cover up, violate their own oaths because the tribe is everything. That majority is more important than keeping a child molester out of the Capitol.”

“The second thing that’s going on is Bannon is trying to remake the party in his image,” she continued. “He wants them all to be as crazy as he is. This is an ego trip for him, this is an ego trip for the president — punish their allies.”

“What would they do with a majority? They can’t legislate,” she snapped.

(That last a sentiment being echoed by GOP donors.)

Combine it with this:

Signs posted on college campuses in Georgia have launched a viral social media discussion about rape on campus, CBS 46 in Atlanta reports. The signs were placed on the contiguous campuses of Morehouse and Spelmen colleges.

“Some, accuse men from Morehouse of raping women from Spelmen,” anchor Sharon Reed explained.

“Others say the schools are covering up sexual assaults,” anchor Ben Swann replied.
The signs used the provocative hashtag: #WeKnowWhatYouDid, which became the top trending topic on Twitter in Atlanta. Signs read “No More Secrets,” “Morehouse Protects Rapists – Spelman Protects Rapists,” with other signs listing the names of specific men.
“Hey, I stand with women,” Reed noted. “If someones done something like this, you’ve got the right to call it out.”

“Let the chips fall where they may,” Reed concluded.

“Definitely, there’s got to be something there,” reported Kim Passoth added. “There’s a lot trending on Twitter tonight, 3,000 Tweets from students. Obviously there’s something going on that they need to talk about.”

And even this:

At least five companies have announced they will not advertise during Sean Hannity’s TV and radio shows following the host’s coverage of Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moore, who is accused of sexual misconduct with a 14-year-old.*

As well as the fact more and more Senators are telling Moore to quit the race, and you have the makings of that tired old cliche, a perfect storm.

If the GOP doesn't refuse to seat Moore, the shit-storm that will rain down on them a year from now will be like Harvey in Houston all over again.  If they don't seat Moore, that storm will come in the GOP primaries, and again, they will lose the general because those who survive those primaries will make Steve Bannon look like a Rhodes scholar and a placid statesman.

Yes, by the way, that discussion is already in the public sphere:

McConnell said he is willing to lose the Senate seat to a Democrat rather than have a child sexual predator in his caucus, which Siegfried applauded, but then said, “I wish Mitch McConnell would go a step further and say he wouldn’t seat him if he won.”

“There’s a lot of talk about innocent until proven guilty,” Siegfried continued, “but this isn’t a court of law, this is a political opinion and what we stand for as a party.”

Saying that it would be better to have a child sexual predator in the Senate than a Democrat, the strategist said, is putting party over country and is “a cancer” on the GOP.

Roy "Fruit Salad" Moore still says he's going to sue the Washington Post.  They've got 30+ sources as well as the four women, and NYT v. Sullivan.  He's got bupkis, and a civil suit would invite all manner of investigation into his penchant for dating girls so young he felt compelled to ask their mother's permission.  Polling now indicates that may be his best case scenario:

Moore trails Democratic candidate Doug Jones 46 percent to 42 percent among Alabama voters, a lead for the Democrat that is well within the poll's margin of error of 4.1 points, according to the new survey by Louisiana-based JMC Analytics. That finding is consistent with two overnight polls that were released since the allegations came to light Thursday.

Before the news broke, Moore had an eight-point lead in the race, reflecting Alabama's heavily Republican tilt. The election is scheduled for Dec. 12.

So he could lose the seat to a Democrat; or force the Senate to refuse to seat him; or gain the Senate, and be an albatross around the neck of the GOP in 2018, because this issue (how men treat women) is not going away.

Let us all thank Roy Moore, our man on their side.

*An act which has led, hilariously, to Hannity fans smashing their Keurig coffee makers.  But Keurig doesn't sell the K-cups everyone uses, they sell the coffee makers these clowns have already bought.  Smashing one doesn't hurt Keurig at all, and certainly won't affect sales of K-cups.  So.....