great job last night, steve benen!

FYI, per the 2002 New Republic article, his "intrusive" comment was about the Voting Rights Act, not the Civil Rights Act (and the preclearance part of the Voting Rights Act is intrusive, though he's probably missing the point).

Not that he's not a loathsome excuse for a human being, but it's an important distinction and worth getting the facts right.

Republicans should be pressured to call on Sessions to explain how his views on race have evolved since his early career.

If Sessions says he was never bigoted that says he hasn't changed.

If Sessions admits evolving it will create a rift with part of the GOP base.

I've got ten bucks that says Senator Sessions' opening statement, when the as-yet-unnamed Supreme Court nominee has his or her hearing, will include the acronym ACORN.

Yeah, fine job last night.

Now, let's start the pool -- who'll be the first Republican to say that the only racists are people who mention the racial incidents in the career of Jeff Sessions?

I've got ten bucks that says Senator Sessions' opening statement, when the as-yet-unnamed Supreme Court nominee has his or her hearing, will include the acronym ACORN.

Yup. His opening statment and every other Republican's.

Great. More elite, white, southern, pig-headed, racists making sure 'justice' is applied to civil rights and other laws. I feel a storm a'com'in. There one brewing on the horizon. It's the black cloud of hate and prejudice. Coming to a Senate Judiciary Committee near you. C'mon Americans and other human beings who have feelings and are capable of forethought and empathy, STEP UP and SPEAK OUT!

"We're going to get Jeff Sessions! We're going to get Jeff Sessions! We're going to get Jeff Sessions!"Z

Is this what you say when you brood in the dark? How are you any different then those right-wing groups you citicize for their character assassination attempts on several Obama nominees and appointments. They feel the same way about abortion as you feel about racism.

Assuming what's been said here is true and of course, Sen. Sessions has his side of all these allegations (which I'm sure you've bothered to ask, right?) Did you ever stop to think that even if he is the vicious racist you portray him to be, maybe's he's changed? It's been 25 years. And why aren't Alabamans are as keyed up as you are for these past sins since he's been elected and re-elected? And by the way, if this is all true, why didn't YOU raise a stink about it when he was up for re-election last year? What's your excuse? If he doesn't deserve to be a mere ranking committee member for who he supposedly is, do you think he belong in the Senate at all?

I think Jeff Sessions and Bill Ayers should get together and compare notes.

Great job on Maddow, Steve.

Did you ever stop to think that even if he is the vicious racist you portray him to be, maybe's he's changed? It's been 25 years.

The Republican Party is such an embarrassment. I would be prone to feel sorry for them but for the fact that they've brought this mess upon themselves willingly. The more they trot out bigots like Sessions, the more people realize to whom this party appeals.

The GOP = the party of fear, ignorance and hate.

I caught you on TV last night. You did a great job and I hope you become a regular. I was lucky that you happened to be scheduled between the third and fourth quarters of the Celtics-Magic game. (I like politics but I do have priorities.)

The Republicans promote an unapologetic neo-Confederate to a key role in the Senate? Wow, that'll show all the haters who claim the GOP has become a rump regional party of white ressentiment!

why aren't Alabamans are as keyed up as you are for these past sins since he's been elected and re-elected?

Maybe because the people who voted for him, unlike most Americans, consider those episodes of voter suppression on his part to be signs of virtue rather than sinfulness.

One significant difference between Bill Ayers and Jefferson Beauregard Sessions is that one is a fairly inconsequential education professor at a Chicago commuter school, and one is a powerful United States Senator.

Schmuck.

Assuming what's been said here is true and of course,,,,,And why aren't Alabamans are as keyed up as you are for these past sins since he's been elected and re-elected?...Posted by: Sean Scallon on May 5, 2009 at 11:25 AM | PERMALINK***************************

One thing that you obviously are ignorant of, is that this is 'Reality Based Community'. Lies have no purpose here. I have seen Democrats and Republicans called to task here. Most every assertion has documentation and links to drill down to do further research on your own, if you wish.

Further, you ask how Sessions could be re-elected if her were so bad. Ummm, where were you during the 2000 and the subsequent 2004 presidential elections? If Bush can get re-elected, why are you surprised about Sessions? Also, you must consider that perhaps his constituents have little problem with his behavior and attitudes, or even endorse them. THAT would explain a lot too, wouldn't it?

As I recall (and I could be a bit off without going back and digging), the Perry County mess was part of what kept Sessions from being appointed US Atty. He, and the Repub establishment, were VERY bitter about the ass kicking Sessions took. He ran for the Senate as a martyr to the cause and won handily.

Why doesn't Alabama get more worked up? Because a damn lot of the people down here like him that way. And the only person the Dems feel could beat him would be another Richard Shelby type.

Remember, we replaced a loon like Jerimiah Denton with a weasel like Shelby. Imagine what we'd get replacing Sessions.

ye gads, what a stereotypical cracker jefferson sessions is! not much older than me (he's 62), but he seems to have sucked up about as much of the toxic hate of cracker culture as he could without exploding into violence.

many many white southerners continue to be fed such poisonous racism -- even today, even the youngest. it is a disease. and then we have geeks like richard cohen today... "For most Americans, race has become supremely irrelevant. Everyone knows this..."

sweet jeebus-moses-muhammad help us!

Correction, he was a US Atty (Reagan appointee). He was turned down for the Circuit Court of Appeals.

Let me echo Tom Hilton's comment. The key is when he made these statements -- at a time when George Wallace had been elected Governor with (deserved) black support, when the batlles for basic civil rights had been won ten or more years before. He was not 'echoing the spirit of his time' but deliberately seeking to turn the clock back.

Steve, you did a great job on Rachel, but I hope more people start bringing this up -- specifically comparing him to Trent Lott, and maybe reminding people of another prominent Republican's racial views, Haley Barbour, darling of the CofCC.

Assuming what's been said here is true and of course, Sen. Sessions has his side of all these allegations (which I'm sure you've bothered to ask, right?) Did you ever stop to think that even if he is the vicious racist you portray him to be, maybe's he's changed? It's been 25 years.

If he's changed or renounced his former statements and positions, it would show up somewhere amongst all the articles and interviews with him since the 1980s. So far, no changes or renunciations have been found.
And I'm sure you would have found and posted something if the not-so-thinly-veiled racist who you've gone out of your way to defend had actually changed.
And why would Ayers and Sessions compare notes? The former is a mostly powerless education professor in Illinois, the other is the ranking U.S. Senator on the Judiciary Committee. I guess if you're a moronic wingnut grasping for similarities, you would think they were just the same. Keep constructing your own reality, as long as you stay out of the way of the people who are actually trying to improve things.

If they will promote Jeff Sessions to a place he will be seen and heard by the public, I can't understand why they haven't put Rush Limbaugh in as party chairman. Maybe they are saving Rush to run for president in 2012?

The wingnuts wanted a purer more right wing party and they are getting what they want. A southern bigot with white supremacy leanings. I say more power to them and the raggety pup tent they huddle under in the political wilderness.

The GOP = the party of fear, ignorance and hate.
Posted by: whichwitch on May 5, 2009 at 11:36 AM | PERMALINK
**********************************
I thought GOP ='ed

Gay (closet-type)
Obstructionist
Plutocrats

but I guess it's actually both.

I love watching republicans dance around race as if their party is really the party of Lincoln. What I do love about republicans is that they will not back down, no matter how detrimental it is and this will be horrible.

I think the fight with Sessions is going to give republicans all the fodder they need in scrapping over Obama's SCOTUS nomination. It might even be part of their strategy, they put Sessions out there knowing the fire storm he will generate, then act like the firestorm they generate over the SC nomination is the same thing.

Where is Steele on Sessions ?

Saw you on Rachel's show, Steve, and all I can say is: "You lucky ba...uh, son-of-a-gun!" :)

Excellent job, too, by the way. Keep this up and the Obama administration may come calling. Deputy Director of White House Communications Benen has a nice ring to it, don't you think?

@Sean Scallon

Dude, did you just seriously ask why Alabama voters aren't terribly exercised by Sessions' record on race relations? This takes literally a Jeff Sessions level of mental acuity to contemplate, which is to say very little at all: It's because they agree with him.

Also, if Bill Ayers were a Democratic senator the party had just promoted to a position where he would oversee investigations into antiwar radicalism, you might have a point of comparison with Sessions. As such, he's a education professor with no public authority and hence absolutely no relevance to the discussion.

That's the difference between Democrats and Republicans. Both parties have their kooks and crazies. While the Democrats at the national level generally try to politely ignore their kooks, the Republican party seems intent on making sure their's actually run the show.

it may prove to be a Trent Lott-like problem for the party.

Or more likely, turn another Alabama Senator into a Howell Heflin-like national punchline once people see Sessions in day after day of confirmation hearings.

Great; a known bigot at the forefront of civil rights legislation. It would be nice if he were an ex-bigot like Byrd is, but Sessions' voting record and history clearly show he's still wearing the white sheets in the Senate.

IF Byrd can give it up, why can't you, Sen. Sessions?

All in all, Howell Heflin was a helluva lot better than what we have now. Remember him for Watergate, not the unfortunate underwear incident during the Fawn Hall debacle;>

Southern Republican Senator Jeff Sessions is also the guy who recently called for legislation to require that potential presidential candidates to submit a birth certificate to Congress. He supports the wingnut "birthers" who, despite clear proof, insist that Obama is not a U.S. citizen. Fellow racist, Trent Lott, called his service on the Senate Judiciary Committee "poetic justice." He is proof that the Republicans want to purify the party of the far right. It should be interesting to hear him question the Obama candidate for the Supreme Court, especially if a woman, minority, or gay or lesbian is nominated. I so want to see Sessions make a complete fool of himself and further alienate rational Republican voters.

I actually knew Howell Heflin and admired him, he had an excellent organizational and judicial mind. Just pointing out that the national image of him was basically a caricature clown.

Ugh. Steve, the next time you write a post decrying a racist pig, you might want to consider not borrowing the sexist pig language of the source material, or at least put everything you cut-n-paste into quotes:

Albert Turner, Turner's wife Evelyn, and Spencer Hogue, Jr.

The proper way to spell the woman's name is "Evelyn Turner". It's no longer the 50s, when a woman was defined primarily by her relationship to the men in her life.

Even if one disagrees with the mission of the NAACP and other liberal advocacy groups, they don't have the power to ram anything down the throat of anyone. Only judges and legislatures have that power. Unbelievable that someone who has such a fundamental misunderstanding of the process was ever nominated for a federal judgeship.

"Rebranding" means trying to stuff more of the same lib lite, borrow-and-spend, illegal alien, Evangelicalism down our throats. Usually I find something to disagree about with my lib brethren, but this Republican Party is garbage, and they're too arrogant to listen to anyone.