Hypocrisy no longer suffices. Republican politicians are not just flip-flopping in their attitudes towards sexual misconduct, they now hold two different positions—one for when fellow Republicans are accused, and one for when Democratic enemies are. Now that the President of the United States has sufficiently eroded the norms of our political culture and the concept of objective truth in the public discourse, they feel they can say anything.

Take Ted Cruz, for instance. The conservative "firebrand"—once seen calling voters on behalf of the man who publicly insulted his wife and implied his father was involved in the JFK assassination—put on quite a show on Fox News Thursday:

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FOX NEWS HOST TO @tedcruz: You cool working with alleged child molester Roy Moore if he's elected?



CRUZ: Sure, no problem, that's up to the voters.



FOX NEWS HOST: And what about alleged groper Al Franken?



CRUZ: Now that's a very serious problem. I'm extremely concerned. pic.twitter.com/1QzMq0Hud5 — Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) November 30, 2017

President PROBABLY Man of the Year's trickle-down shamelessness is having debilitating effects on our discourse. His acid gall is breaking down the membranes that kept out unhinged nonsense and brazen dickitude. Ted Cruz, representing The Party of Family Values and Christian America, just suggested the Senate should not hesitate to seat a man accused by eight women of sexual misconduct. Moore denies the claims, but many say they were under 18 when Roy Moore, then in his 30s, came after them. One said she was just 14 when Moore brought her to his house and tried to get her to touch his genitals through his tighty-whities. But if Alabama voters choose him, who are politicians in Washington—a place Cruz maligns at every opportunity, yet seems to have been working his whole life to reach—to say they're wrong?

The answer, of course, is that they are United States senators, and can hold their chamber to a higher standard than that of whoever it is that plans to vote for a guy who was banned from the local mall because he was chasing the Santa's helpers around. That's the standard to which Cruz held his current colleague, Al Franken, just seconds later—in the very same TV segment. Five women have accused Franken of groping or other forms of sexual misconduct. There's a very good case that he should resign. But does Cruz really believe he's lightyears worse than a man accused of molesting a 14-year-old because Franken admitted some allegations are true?

Roy Moore, mall outlaw. Getty Images

(Here we could add a detail that seems necessary for conservative politicians like Cruz or Ben Sasse, the latter of whom expressed outrage at Moore on the basis that Sasse himself has a 14-year-old daughter. Again, you shouldn't need something to affect a direct family member for it to matter for you, but Cruz has two young daughters.)

Republicans long ago abandoned principle in pursuit of power. Cruz is among the most perverse in this regard, endorsing Trump after having called him a "pathological liar" and a "narcissist" and claiming throughout the Republican primary that the Tangerine Generalissimo was not a real conservative. Of course, when it comes to Moore, Cruz, like many of his Republican colleagues, is merely following a path through this dark jungle first cut by the president himself. More than a dozen women have accused Donald Trump of some form of sexual misconduct, and he was caught on tape bragging about committing sexual assault. That didn't deter Cruz or any other major Republican official in 2016, so why should the fact a local police officer said she was tasked with keeping Roy Moore away from the cheerleaders at high school football games when he was in his 30s? Trump, who now unbelievably says the person on the Access Hollywood tape is not him, has also de facto endorsed Moore.

For a reminder of the spinelessness and moral collapse of this political party, check out Speaker Paul Ryan's take on Trump and Moore this morning:

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The only thing that matters in all this, from Cruz's standpoint, is that Al Franken is a Democrat and Roy Moore is a Republican. That's why Moore's fate is solely up to the voters, but Franken needs an ethics investigation—and, the implication is, should have to go. Well, it's mostly about party. There's also the fact Franken had this to say about Cruz, who got his own chapter—titled "Sophistry"—in Franken's most recent book:

"You have to understand that I like Ted Cruz probably more than my colleagues like Ted Cruz," Franken said, "and I hate Ted Cruz."

In fairness, it's no worse than what Lindsey Graham had to say. Roy Moore would vote to give Ted Cruz's donors a tax cut, and to install conservative judges in the federal court system who would strike down regulations on their businesses. So whatever happened down in small-town Alabama is none of Ted Cruz's business.

Jack Holmes Politics Editor Jack Holmes is the Politics Editor at Esquire, where he writes daily and edits the Politics Blog with Charles P Pierce.

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