Roy Moore with the Ten Commandments plaque that made him a celebrity
We usually agree with the views expressed by the Wall Street Journal editorial board and many of the op-eds featured in the Journal. But there are exceptions, such as the lead editorial in last Tuesday’s Journal, which joins the Never Trump movement in calling for a Moore defeat in Alabama’s senatorial special election on December 12th and claims that
“A GOP victory in Alabama may be more costly than a defeat…[W]e are generally skeptical about trial by newspaper, especially four decades after events are said to have occurred. But this is an election, not a trial, and voters have to make decisions in these imperfect circumstances….A Moore defeat would also go far to discredit Steve Bannon…We understand the fix Alabamans are in, especially with a Democratic candidate who better fits California than what may be the country’s most conservative state.”
So, the Journal editorialists are willing to sacrifice a Senate seat to the Democrats, leaving a Republican margin of one senator when it’s been made clear that a margin of at least four or five senators is necessary to get anything done in the face of part-time Republicans in the mold of McCain, Collins, Flake, and Corker. But this is o.k. because it will “discredit Steve Bannon.”
Forty-year-old accusations are too far back for our taste, which is why we have statutes of limitation in court trials. And how many individuals are the same person with the same standards forty years later?
An additional consideration is that if Moore is elected, the Senate Ethics Committee can have a second say in the matter, and if it decides to reject Moore, Alabama’s Republican governor will pick his successor. That would be both justice for Moore and political common sense.
As has been noted by the press, the Democrats’ call for Conyers and Franken to resign has one central motivation: to perhaps gain a senate seat but above all to destroy Trump by impeachment or forced resignation. This sudden onset of moral fervor from the party that defended the rapist and sexual predator William Clinton is as hypocritical as its concurrent criticism of Republicans, after the Obama years, for tax reform that doesn’t balance the budget.
US recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital
Alan Dershowitz hails President Trump’s announcement that the US will move its embassy to Jerusalem as a welcome reversal of former President Obama’s anti-Israel policies. Caroline Glick provides further analysis, and the National Review writes that the move by the president
“strikes a Blow against International Anti-Semitism…On this issue, he is demonstrating greater resolve than Republican and Democratic presidents before him, and he is defying some of the worst people in the world.”
Nablus, West Bank – Palestinians clash with Israeli troops during a protest against President Trump’s decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital (AP Photo/Majdi Mohammed)
Although anti-US demonstrations have been widespread in Moslem-majority countries, Powerline suggests that the “rallying cry of Jerusalem may have lost force in [the] Arab world” and that
“Unless you’re John Kerry, or maybe Jared Kushner, you can understand why war, revolution, and the imperial ambitions of a powerful state [Iran] are more important to regional leaders than what the capital of Israel is.”
Dr. Norman Bailey provides a focused summary of that Mideast context.
Click here to go to yesterday’s Founders Broadsheet (“Progressives attempting coup against 2016 elections, imitating Confederacy”)
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