Being “very concerned” doesn’t even begin to cover it:
Incoming U.S. Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer on Friday said he is “very concerned” about Republican U.S. President-elect Donald Trump’s selection of Senator Jeff Sessions as attorney general and indicated there would be tough questioning in the chamber’s confirmation process.
“Given some of his past statements and his staunch opposition to immigration reform, I am very concerned about what he would do with the Civil Rights Division at the Department of Justice and want to hear what he has to say,” Schumer said in a statement.
Everyone, of every race, religion and gender should be opposed to the idea of Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III heading the Department of Justice. As Democratic senators, however, it is an absolute duty to remain united in opposition and to do everything within their power to convince at least two of their Republican colleagues to join them in rejecting this insane nomination.
This will require a serious effort and a massive education project for the public. It may not be successful. It probably won’t be successful. But minority groups in this country absolutely have the right to demand and expect nothing less than a full effort.
If the Democrats in the Senate think they should be courteous to a colleague and that their base will stand for it, they are frankly out of their damn minds.
Sessions is as staunch an opponent of black civil and voting rights as you will find in Congress or in a position of elected responsibility anywhere in the country.
His record as a prosecutor, state Attorney General and senator could not be more clear on this.
Trump may as well have appointed a reanimated George Wallace to head the Justice Department.
And if any Democratic senator tries to soft-pedal that basic indisputable fact, they’ll have the undying enmity of everyone in the Democratic base who gives a damn about civil rights.
I have some advice for Schumer. He should go to the other side of Capitol Hill and sit down with Rep. John Lewis. If John Lewis says it’s okay to confirm Sessions or to acquiesce to his nomination without a bloody battle, then that will be acceptable behavior.
I don’t think that’s what John Lewis will say, though.
Do you?
There has been a lot of talk about people voting for Trump because of economic anxiety. Small town America getting the short end, etc. Let’s address the white working classes concerns about NAFTA, etc.
It seems Trump knows more about why people voted for him than progressives.
It’s always been about racism.
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Lawyers, Guns, and Money
Great article.
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It’s always been about racism.
Are you saying that none of HRC’s voters are racist?
What is your point straw man Pepe? This is a racist country that was founded on white supremacy and theft of wealth and land from other people.
Hey there Chuckie! ” very concerned” won’t cut it. Try something like, o I don’t know ” no fucking way” !
I’m not terribly enthused by Schumer’s initial response either, but let’s face it: Screaming opposition to Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III right out of the gate will do little but cause the reactionary knee jerk that will ensure Sessions’ confirmation as Attorney General by a snappy 52-48 vote.
Right now Senate Democrats in concert with liberal and progressive groups need to define Sen. Sessions as the racist asshole he is. Relentlessly recite his public record of racism and his long-standing bigotry. We don’t need to persuade the pepophiles of the nuevo nazis, we need to make the very mention of Sessions’ name cause for decent people everywhere to grimace in disgust. Some Senate Republicans reside in purple states; force them to state on the record their support for Sessions, or to quietly go behind the scenes and persuade Trump that Sessions isn’t going to make it through a confirmation vote.
As to Trump himself, there are two choices to confront his supporters with: Either Trump is the most clueless and luckless man when it comes to selecting his appointments, or he really is so racist that the likes of Steve Bannon and Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III appeal to him. There isn’t an alternative, and Trump supporters must have that choice forced on them: Trump’s incompetent or racist.
I agree. But I hope they have something a little more pointed than a concern.
People need to call their senators and local congressmen.
Lazy liberals need to get off their lard asses and do the work. You only have your country and the Republic to lose.
This is how you do it:
http://www.attn.com/stories/12768/former-congressional-staffer-explains-how-to-make-congressman-list
en
Be nice, get the name of the person you are talking to and call every time Trump does something that threatens the norms and institutions of the country. In other words every other day you need to call them, get your friends and family involved as well.
Very few of you do anything other than complain, and I am being too generous.
This is where Ds in power on all “sides” show that, while of course they are heeding the call to re-calibrate our policies and messaging to better address rural and working class voters, they aren’t going to throw people of color under the bus to do so.
This is where we show that whatever new new deal we come up with we won’t make the mistakes of the first new deal and leave people of color behind and/or trade their livesfor it.
If they throw the base under the bus, like the usual suspects want, they deserve what they get.
There is simply very little ‘there’. Somebody said ‘just 10% of Trump voters is all we need’. Well yes, but at what cost to POC.
It’s why I believe all democrats really need to do is fight. Stand up for something.
The racism is right there, in the open. Go after it, nonstop. You might lose, you probably will lose at least some, and maybe a lot. But it’s the right fight, at the right time, against the right people.
It’s good politics, and it’s the right thing to do.
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There is simply very little ‘there’. Somebody said ‘just 10% of Trump voters is all we need’. Well yes, but at what cost to POC.
I wonder what percentage of Trump voters voted twice for Obama. I know the media found some here and there but I’m wondering if that added up to anything real.
I heard the only place it looked like that happened was Pennsylvania.
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Here’s another take on it. He calls it the Apahy Election.
mahablog
I suppose I agree, but it’s not really my point. My point is the people who voted for Trump did it because of race, NOT economic anxiety.
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I bet Republican elite heads are exploding since Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III graduated from the University of Alabama School of Law–no Ivy league guy here.
Justin Amash — only a House Rep (with the highest of aspirations) but he is a Republican (in the “Libertarian caucus”:
I am puzzled. Someone please tell me how…in a practical, nuts and bolts, constitutionally-based manner…the remaining Dems in Congress can do a goddamned thing about Sessions’s nomination. I admit total ignorance on this matter, and will be too busy working and traveling over the next few days to do any real research on the subject.
Thank you…
AG
I don’t often agree with you AG, but on this one I’m 100% on the same page.
Even if the Dems can’t stop him they have to show theyoppose this selection. A 60-40 vote normalizes a candidate that could not get confirmed previously. The media will trumpet him as get getting bipartisan confirmation. Maybe just with Manchin they do it, but don’t give them anymore fodder for their propaganda.
They can’t practically but they can make sure and expose him for the racist he is on his way to confirmation
Anyone who cares about his racism…pro or con…already knows about it, Camussie. There is nothing left to expose.
AG
I guarantee most of the American public has no idea who sessions is. It is up to Ds to expose him.
This is so true.
Anyone want to take bets 25 out of 100 voters could tell you a GD thing about JS? 80-90 would be “Jeff who?”
I’d like to know the same thing.
I’m not holding my breath for sell-out Dems to take any kind of stand at this late date. Yeah: color me both cynical and skeptical.
Hope I’m wrong, but…
Sessions needs 50 votes to be confirmed.
The Democrats have 48 members.
As of now, Joe Manchin says he supports Sessions and his West Virginia constituents undoubtedly support that decision.
But all of Sessions’ history and the implications of his appointment have not been aired.
Remember, Robert Bork lost an up or down vote when no one thought that was possible before Biden got started. The Dems did not filibuster his appointment and did not need to.
It is possible to expose Sessions for who he is and to awaken the American people and to influence two or three Republicans.
I said it is not likely. I said it would probably fail.
But there is a duty to try.
They simply cannot stop him.
At this point, the hysteria is about at 11.5. There is no reason to it. Sessions has a lot of positive qualities.
My suggestion is to pick the battle. If Ryan is going to go after Medicare, that is a winnable battle, and one that will be more important than useless lost causes like the AG.
If Ryan does go out after Medicare and Medicaid, this might be enough to flip the House, played well enough. A lot of old fuckers vote R but really want to keep Medicare.
Sessions will be confirmed. Will Medicare exist in a year?
>>Sessions has a lot of positive qualities
would you like to go on?
You’re right that he will be confirmed, but no he has not a single positive quality, he’s the most obnoxious possible racist fuckwad that Trump could have picked out of the large numbers of them in the Republican congress.
He hates immigrants with the fury of a thousand suns. Dataguy cares about nothing else. He’d gleefully lead the charge to ethnically cleanse the region and throw people into the camps and prisons.
Nah, he would never lead. He would be the one with the truncheon.
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The whole immigration situation is far more complex than you seem able to follow. There are:
I know it is possible to distinguish between these classes. People do it all the time.
http://www.sciencemag.org/careers/2016/03/displaced-american-stem-workers-spur-senate-hearing
Kindly inform me when some Democrat holds a comparable hearing.
Not even Durbin did. And fucking Schumer would never hold such hearings. He is a big helper of the job killers.
What you just posted? Is exactly what I mean by progressives throwing people of color under the bus (who are the base of the Democratic party) to pursue policies that resonate more highly with middle class voters. Absolutely Ds need to oppose whatever Ryan has in store for Medicare & Medicaid but that doesn’t mean that they let Sessions be confirmed without a fight. And by fight I mean putting him through the ringer when it comes to his views. Make sure everyone out there knows that while he may be AG now he is a racist SOB who will be actively working to deny the right to vote to millions of Americans.
In our revamping our platform and message to better appeal to middle class voters we should not throw the concerns of people of color to the wolves.
http://www.limitstogrowth.org/articles/2016/02/26/senate-hearing-investigates-myth-of-american-stem-
worker-shortage/
The main concern that I have is that Sessions will be leaving the Senate where he did support the American STEM worker.
Yes I know he held that hearing but that doesn’t change that he is an unrepentant racist who as AG will not lift a finger to make sure the voting rights of citizens, especially black citizens, are not protected.
Who will also not open investigations into police brutality when black men are gunned down on the street.
I get that jobs are your issue and I even agree with many of your points but what you don’t seem to acknowledge that for many people of color Sessions heading of the department of justice means even more unchecked police brutality and taking away of your their basic rights,
As someone once said dead people don’t care about jobs.
That means prioritizing Sessions position on H1-B workers before his blatant racism is a signal to the base of this Democratic party (yes the base) that their lives and basic rights are to take a back seat to white middle class economic angst and that is never okay.
I should rephrase. I get that immigration and visa’s programs effect on jobs are your issue.
“Sessions has a lot of positive qualities.”
Like you I have no life, please inform me of these mythical attributes. I’ll be here all weekend. Being a white male geriatric doesn’t count.
the only difference is Wallace apologized.
Not a high bar, I know.
John Lewis believes in the redemption of souls.
He defended Trent Lott in 2002.
I would not venture to assume I know what he thinks.
http://www.cnn.com/2002/ALLPOLITICS/12/17/cnna.lewis.lott/
ongressman Lewis, a number of civil rights leaders are saying Trent Lott should go, he should resign his leadership position, some even say resign from the Senate. You’re prepared to give him a second chance. Why?
LEWIS: Well, I’m not prepared to suggest that he should step down or that he should go, leave the Congress. It is not my call. That decision should be made by his colleagues in the Senate, and especially his Republican colleagues.
It is very much in keeping with the philosophy and the discipline on nonviolence to forgive people. When someone issues an apology and asks you to forgive them, you forgive them. We forgave [Alabama] Governor [George] Wallace. We forgave [Birmingham police chief] Bull Connor. We had the capacity and the ability to forgive Sheriff [James] Clark [of Selma]. I don’t have any malice or ill feeling toward the people that beat me and jailed me during the ’60s. So why should I feel bitter or hostile toward a colleague of mine in the Congress?
The donkey is dead; the brand is toxic.
The DC organization has been discredited with the base.
Now the officials in DC are seeking to have that base stop thinking the Democratic Party will do anything at all for them instead of just serving the officials’ large donors.
That said, these appointments seem like filibuster bait so that Mitch McConnell can fire off his nuclear option without getting burned. And the media will indeed play along.
How does not getting out in the boonies look now?
there is no filibuster for executive appointments. Not anymore.
Insane.
That describes the people in Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania who voted for Trump.
Evil.
That’s what describes Trump and his appointments.
Way too late to start whining, protesting, and pretending you have backbone now.
I guess we’ll just have to wait 8 more years before a Democrat can appoint another Comey to ratfuck their own administration.
See you then.
The nomination and confirmation of this Southern-fried turd for the critical position of AG will be a very instructive opening scene for our new Trumpland. How do senate Dems respond to the nomination of their “good friend” Jefferson Racist Sessions III? Presumably they dredge up the record of his failed bid for a federal judgeship under St Reagan, and read every allegation and quote line by line out of that record. And ask the turd what he meant by every line. That seems a bare minimum.
Has he made racist statements to any of them in the past 25 years? Do they ask what he thinks about the various race baiting stories that appear weekly in Josef Bannon’s White Party shitrag? There’s an immense magazine of ammo, but do they keep the powder dry?
How does the useless corporate media respond? Here is something that would seem hard for them to sweep under the rug, plus if Dems do their job it should generate an actual story that must be covered. Will the thumb be on the scale to protect Der Trumper and his “Fuck You!” pick, or will they acknowledge that this is indeed an (intentionally controversial) “Fuck You!” pick?
With this pick we can also see that the power behind the throne intends to operate in a covert lawless manner, with a compliant mediocre stooge rubber-stamping everything at DOJ. So Cheneyism is almost certainly returning to the nation, after a short intermission.
But at the bare minimum, we can throw out the idea that we are in post-racial America, haha. And Der Trumper is providing one unprecedented tableau after another.
Trumper: “They’ve never had such ratings for an AG nomination! Did you see the ratings? Wait’ll they see the Guiliani pick!” Lt. Colonel Priebus: “Jawohl! Heil Trumper!”
this ongoing debacle is the biggest failure of us white folks in decades, if not centuries.
Civil rights are not granted by the goverment. They are asserted. They are taken. It is immensely frustrating to hear liberals and progressives demand something from the goverment. To hell with the goverment and freaks like Sessions. Take what you need. Live the life you want to live. Stop being afraid.
Good grief.