Franken’s defenders are even more bold, having long ago jettisoned conventional morality. In an op-ed in the Washington Post, Garrison Keillor called it “pure absurdity” to demand Franken’s resignation from the Senate over actions committed “in a spirit of low comedy.” Keillor, himself, was immediately sacked from NPR after revelations of his own misconduct, but even had he been simon-pure in that regard, his argument was blemished with antinomian justification. Does anyone believe he would have defended, say, Bob Packwood so vigorously? Or any other Republican?

Defenders of Conyers are more prominent, but just as gross. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi called Conyers an “icon in our country” while clumsily diverting from the previously accepted theme of believing those who accuse men of sexual assault. Her reasoning is telling, if rambling: “He has done a great deal to protect women — Violence Against Women Act, which the left, right-wing is now quoting me as praising him for his work on that, and he did great work on that.” Because he worked to pass a law that the Left thinks advanced women’s rights, his own personal transgressions against women are allowed.

The two Democrats’ defenders reject morality as something that that applies universally, and would replace it with the law of power—different standards for the elect. Instead of fighting that, defenders of Moore ask the Right to do the same.