Unappeal Sessions

One of the shiteating wingnut GOP Senators who doesn’t nearly get enough attention for his hackery, ideological opportunism, and unique brand of wanton racism is Alabama Senator Jeff Sessions. Though lacking the involuntary shudder-inducing creepiness of Santorum or the teeth-grindingly infuriating willful ignorance of Bill Frist, Sessions is, in his own inimitable way, just as hideous as the rest of his cohorts, and maybe…just maybe…even worse. I’m not sure whether his recent performance at Roberts’ confirmation hearing or his attempts to exploit Katrina’s death toll to generate support for repeal of the estate tax is worse, so I guess we’ll just visit each for a moment.

During the time allotted to what should have been his questioning of Roberts, Sessions instead took the opportunity to cajole Roberts into saying he’d overturn Roe and to educate himself, apparently, on the inner workings of the SCOTUS. Ezra described watching Sessions

…berating Roberts for being too forthcoming, begging him to promise he's not yet decided how he'd rule on Roe … referencing polling data saying that Roe lacks widespread support and should be overturned … citing law articles and periodicals saying Roe is bad precedent ... trying to convince Roberts to overturn Roe, and begging him not to assume that's it's ‘settled law.’

Ez also noted that “Sessions, incidentally, strikes me as an idiot. I don't mean ideologically objectionable (though he is that), I mean dumb.” He wasn’t alone in making that observation. After watching the same thing, Wonkette questioned whether there should be an IQ test to be in the Senate.

Alabama's Jeff Sessions is asking Roberts the most basic questions about Supreme Court procedures: "I understand that friends of the court can also participate..." "You have an hour to give a presentation, is that right?" "And do the justices then meet in conference?"

He's treating Roberts like the guy who talks to the class on Career Day. Better pay attention, Jeff -- the teacher assigned a Supreme Court diorama as homework!

Yeah, Sessions certainly seems like a moron (and having Bush-esque quotes like “I certainly believe that improving our intelligence is of important national interest” attributed to him doesn’t improve such opinions, no doubt), and maybe he is one, but if so, he’s adapted like a shark—tiny wee brain capable of nothing but that which is necessary for survival. To wit:

Federal troops aren't the only ones looking for bodies on the Gulf Coast. On Sept. 9, Alabama Senator Jeff Sessions called his old law professor Harold Apolinsky, co-author of Sessions' legislation repealing the federal estate tax, which was encountering sudden resistance on the Hill. Sessions had an idea to revitalize their cause, which he left on Apolinsky's voice mail: "[Arizona Sen.] Jon Kyl and I were talking about the estate tax. If we knew anybody that owned a business that lost life in the storm, that would be something we could push back with."

If legislative ambulance chasing looks like a desperate measure, for the backers of repealing the estate tax, these are desperate times. Just three weeks ago, their long-sought goal of repeal seemed within reach, but Katrina dashed their hopes when Republican leaders put off an expected vote. After hearing from Sessions, Apolinsky, an estate tax lawyer who says his firm includes three multi-billionaires among its clients, mobilized the American Family Business Institute, a Washington-based group devoted to estate tax repeal. They reached out to members along the Gulf Coast to hunt for the dead.

There was a lot of shit that made me really angry about the GOP’s attitudes about Katrina and its victims, but this one has to rank right up there at the top of the list somewhere. What a shit. What a scumbag. What a douche.

We’d better keep our eye on old Jeff Sessions. He’s so thoroughly odious, and so clearly incapable of sustaining an independent thought outside party dogma, that the GOP is likely to run him for president in no time.