Wiretap: Even National Review wonders if Alabama will elect a man with no redeeming virtues

From The National Review, David French writes that it’s one thing to honor important men and women who had profound moral failings — say, Thomas Jefferson —but quite another to vote for a terrible man who lacks any redeeming virtue. Say, Roy Moore.

It turns out there are two candidates in the Alabama Senate race. Occasionally Doug Jones, the underdog Democrat, tries to make the race at least partially about him. Via The New Yorker.

We know that Roy Moore has made many insensitive remarks about race (and, yes, other things) over the years, but why does he also say things that make it seem that he’s OK with slavery? Via Vox.

Why have the polls gone so crazy in Alabama, with Doug Jones up 10 points in one and Roy Moore up nine in another released on the same day? Nate Silver is on the case. Via FiveThirtyEight.com

Another lone-wolf terrorist attacks New York, this time with a makeshift pipe bomb attached to the bomber with what the police described as “Velcro and zip ties.” The only serious injury, in this case at least, was to the bomber himself. Via The New York Times, which wrote in an editorial that New Yorkers don’t scare easily.

Many Americans have been led to believe that Vladimir Putin is a manipulative genius. In truth, he just made a lucky bet that he happened, against long odds, to win. Via The Atlantic.

Simeon Baker, the great African-American reporter who risked his life covering Selma, the Freedom Riders and other moments large and small in civil rights history, dies at 99. As Eugene Robinson writes in The Washington Post, he faced more than the wrath of a Donald Trump tweet.

Several women are back to repeat their accusations of sexual misconduct by Trump and to hope that this time they’re heard. Via The New York Times.

The New Yorker fires star reporter Ryan Lizza for what it calls “improper sexual conduct,” which Lizza denies. But, to this point writes Erik Wemple in The Washington Post, that’s about all we know. And then there’s the story of Rep. Blake Farenthold’s frat house on the Hill. Via The New York Times.

Caricature by DonkeyHotey via Flickr: Creative Commons.