With Jeff Sessions now serving as attorney general of the United States, Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA) is probably one of many liberals who doesn’t have much faith that he can be “a true law keeper,” using the words of MSNBC’s Chris Matthews. The MSNBC host interviewed Kaine last night:
“They may come from parts of the country that are segregated like, Justice Hugo Black, and people like that; there were Klan members—Bobby Byrd, former Senate leader of the Democratic Party and have risen above that sort of—what you might call local thinking or parochial thinking. You don’t think Mr. Sessions is capable of that. Coming from the Deep South, he’s not able to transcend that and become true American law keeper.”
“Chris, I just haven’t seen the evidence,” replied Kaine.
Kaine mentioned discussed Sessions’ refusal to work with Democrats on fixing the Voting Rights Act, when section 4(b) of the act was ruled unconstitutional due to violations of federalism and “equal sovereignty of the states.” That section provided preclearance to voting districts with a history of disenfranchisement that forced them to get approval by the Department of Justice prior to changing aspects of their election law. There is no area of the country where poll taxes, literacy tests, and other egregious methods aimed at keeping blacks from voting are used en masse. And no, voter ID laws are not the reemergence of Jim Crow, but that’s a matter for another time. Kaine also expressed his concerns about Sessions’ views on enhanced interrogation, noting that the DOJ needs to be the check on an overreaching executive.
You mean, like when Obama enacted DAPA and DACA for illegal aliens and unilaterally pushed back the deadline of the employer-based mandate in Obamacare that was passed by Congress. So, when a Democratic president arguably violates separation of powers and passed legislation from the executive, it’s not a problem—but when a Republican president starts passing executive orders on immigration and national security measures, it’s an assault on democracy.
Frankly, for any liberal who has doubts about Sessions, just be honest with yourself. It’s because he’s a Republican from the Deep South.
Sessions took on the Alabama Ku Klux Klan, pushed for the death penalty for one of its leaders for murdering a black teenager, and fought to desegregate schools when he was a U.S. Attorney, but there's no evidence that he can be a good attorney general, or something.
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