Just hours after the Washington Post released its bombshell article on Roy Moore last week, we explained what the allegations meant for Steve Bannon and his “war” to usurp the GOP establishment. In short, Roy Moore’s downfall is an unmitigated disaster for Bannon.
In the aptly named “Roy Moore, Steve Bannon & The Freak Show” we said the following:
This is not just “bad press”, this is the kind of thing that will effectively force the GOP establishment to figure out how to figuratively assassinate Steve Bannon once and for all. Republicans are already under enough pressure. Mitch McConnell and Paul Ryan are the butt of every joke about legislative ineptitude and Donald Trump is the butt of every joke about everything.
Steve Bannon is in no small part responsible for this “deplorable” (pardon the bad pun) state of affairs and now he’s trying to install people like Roy Moore in the spots previously occupied by the same establishment which is suffering irreparable reputational damage from being associated with a President who Bannon also helped to install.
If you think the GOP is going to keep sitting idly by while Bannon turns the entire party into a collection of religious zealots, overt racists, raving homophobes, and now accused predators, you are crazier than Steve.
Two days later, in “‘This Is Deeper Than Politics’: Steve Bannon Defends Roy Moore,” we elaborated further on what we contend is a truly critical connection to understand. To wit:
Steve’s sticking by Moore. In the same Bloomberg interview he said he spoke to ol’ Roy on Friday afternoon. But don’t kid yourself — Bannon doesn’t have a choice. This was his first run at ousting the GOP establishment. If this was one of many candidates who had similarly scored resounding victories, Roy would be expendable. But because he’s one of the first, he’s indispensable. Bannon has to stay onboard and if Roy’s ship sinks, Steve will have to just go down with it and hope nothing even more definitive comes out about Moore. The best Steve can hope for is to maintain some plausible deniability here and to keep pushing this line about how this is all part of an establishment conspiracy.
Well needless to say, things have only gotten worse for Roy over the past several days with Mitch McConnell and Paul Ryan both publicly stating that in their opinion, the accusations are credible. Speaking of accusations, another woman has now come forward and accused Moore of assaulting her when she was 16.
With the pressure building, reports now suggest Steve Bannon is having second thoughts. Although he has continued to support Moore in public, The Daily Beast says Steve is privately pondering whether to cut Roy loose.
“Bannon has begun taking the temperature of those in his inner circle to see what they think of the Moore allegations and to get their sense of how to proceed,” the Beast reports, citing four sources familiar with the situation. According to one person close to Bannon, the Bretibart boss reportedly said he would “put [Moore] in a grave myself,” if he determined that Roy had lied to him about the veracity of the allegations.
In a testament to Roy’s predicament, Matt Drudge tweeted the following this morning (the link on the Drudge Report goes to the Daily Beast story):
You’ll note that tweet certainly appears to be a shot at Steve Bannon as well (“leave politics to the professionals”).
Meanwhile, The Atlantic is out with a piece documenting what we and others have been keen to point out – namely that this is a big deal for Steve Bannon.
“Back in September, Roy Moore’s Republican senatorial primary win over Luther Strange seemed like a good early sign for Steve Bannon’s ‘season of war’ against the Republican establishment,” Rosie Gray wrote on Tuesday, before describing the dilemma Breitbart now faces:
Since then, things have gone very much awry. Five women have said Moore pursued them when they were teenagers and he was in his 30s; two of them, including one woman who said she was just 14 at the time, have said Moore sexually abused them; the National Republican Senatorial Committee has cut Moore off and its leader called for him to be expelled from the Senate even if he wins; nearly every Republican senator who endorsed Moore has withdrawn their endorsement; recent polls have shown him neck-and-neck with the Democratic candidate, Doug Jones; and on Tuesday night, the Republican National Committee pulled their support from him.
The cascade of revelations has forced Breitbart to double down when nearly everyone else is abandoning Moore, and is testing the kingmaker image Bannon has been trying to build for the 2018 midterms.
This, ladies and gentlemen, is a dumpster fire – almost literally.
What Bannon does now may well determine whether he retains his influence going forward. Screwing this up could effectively be the beginning of the end for a man who, as Matt Drudge himself put it back in August, has “had one hell of a run.”
Even Bannon runs polls – formally or informally – and he obviously has discovered he is on the wrong side of the Roy Moore issue. Even people like the opportunistic Bannon can only stand neck-deep in a manure pile just so long and deny that it stinks – before becoming overwhelmed by that stink. While the Bannon-Trump base may not be the most skilled critical thinkers in the country, they are generally a religious and morally sensitive lot.
Perhaps more disappointing and surprising than Roy Moore’s behavior in Alabama – are the people’s behavior in his areas of residence. Or, at least their tolerance of his behavior. Most of Roy’s local acquaintance interviews confirm that Roy’s sexual predation of young girls was common knowledge for decades. In many parts of the south that I was raised in, and no matter what political office you occupy, or the power you think you possess – you mess with your neighbor’s 14 year old daughter, and you bring a host of fatal “accident” scenarios of increasing probabilities into your most immediate future, or you might simply go on a one way vacation and are never heard of again – ever. Roy’s luck has been amazing for him to get this far.
Of course we have to couch our general assessments of Republican’s moral (decline) and tolerance of predatory sexual behavior – in light of the fact – they elected Donald J. Trump to represent them with full knowledge Billy Bush’s recorded accounts of his belief that the most effective way woo a woman was to simply grab them in the crouch.
We are rapidly nearing a point in current history where Republican compromises of the character they require and select in their leadership has gone well below and past the typical low bench mark of politicians’ sub-human moral and ethical behavior levels in general – into the absurdly sickening and unquestionably criminal.
The GOP will never get Donald Trump’s and the Trump Administration’s stain and odor (and or growing criminal record) out the Republican party.
As an Independent, I have occasionally voted for Republican candidates when I thought they were more qualified , with better qualifications and decision records. Never again after Trump.
It’s amazing to me that Bannon is considered IN ANY QUARTER as brilliant.
Given so many quarters are filled with fucking morons it does make sense.
I now that in Alabama and in a handful of other secessionist states which, at their heart remain controlled by white supremacists (Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina and Texas) could easily go for a pedafile, rapist, child predator, sleazy scumbag and failed liar, instead of a democrat, but when Bannon takes his show on the road to pimp his wacko candidates, what then?
When he goes to Nevada or Michigan or Pennsylvania or Illinois, what then?
They’ll all be painted with the Bannon-Pedafile-Seal-of-Approval.â„¢
Everywhere he brings a Bannon wacko, the wacko gets painted with that frame of reference.
Bannon’s a fucking idiot.
Nothing really new here. I’m GOP leaning, in the “classic” sense. Even so, I’ve always been amazed and discouraged that it seems as if the pervert factor in the GOP is higher than it is for Dems. I even concluded the Clinton Wolinsky deal was no biggie (pardon the pun) – and something few of us guys wouldn’t have indulged in. But the GOP seems to have consistently, across many administrations, been a perverted clown show. There was a fairly large scandal in the Reagan admin involving male prostitutes, then there was that Senator or Congressman from the Dakotas or Nebraska that acted funny in public restrooms – and there’s more – to my dismay and embarrassment, it always seemed like the bible pounders were the biggest perverts.
That was Senator Larry Craig of Idaho who claimed he had a wide stance on the toilet and was not cottaging.
I think it is absolutely disgusting that we are all talking about these insane and constant news reports about all the perversion and sexual harassment claims and allegations – which we know are true – and so many men (probably a few women too) denying guilt and — every day, all day, one after another, NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL NEWS COVERAGE…. and all these people are employed as our government officials and leaders of the free world. So much being exposed by so many women and you can bet there are hundreds not saying a word and don’t want to be a news story all over the world but they remember the incident(s) like it was yesterday.
I saw on The Daily Planet tonight that claims against our Congressmen are settled with payments from The United States Treasury, our tax dollars, $15 Million paid to settle these cases! OUR TAX MONEY! Why aren’t they paying their individual settlement cases? And why are they still sitting on their fucking thrones when a case is paid on their behalf? How ridiculous is that?? And soon after seeing that on TV tonight…
… I saw on Rachel Maddow tonight something about the tax reform (??) and one item that was only added on a permanent basis a year ago – and should have been done for years – a small tax deduction that was given to teachers who can provide receipts to verify they have spent their own money for classroom supplies – as we all have heard most teachers do! – a big whopping $250 deduction and most of these teachers spend a hell of a lot more than that! BUT NOW the Republicans have cancelled that deduction allowed to teachers because they did not see the need for it, as part of their stupid bullshit tax reform. Outrageous!
These are the slime that sit in the White House and Congress – that we elected! If nothing else we are learning what fools we have been for too long. Filthy lying cheating bastards. Even the ones that are “innocent” and tolerate it and don’t pound the tables and demand changes be made to bring respect to our government!
Again, to quote our fucking president ‘”DO SOMETHING!”