Jeff Sessions resigns: so long, it’s been not all that good to know you
Jeff Sessions has tendered his (forced) resignation.
But wasn’t this something that we knew would happen after the election? I don’t have time to look for a link right now, but that’s my recollection. If that’s correct, I don’t know why people would be treating this as some sort of big amazing news.
I was puzzled as to why it didn’t happen sooner. Sessions’ recusal made him essentially ineffective for some of the biggest tasks of his office.
Here’s what I wrote about him this past August.
And of course the Democrats are trying to pull their usual tricks to stymie the approval and/or effectiveness of his successor (and the person named so far—Matthew Whitaker—may not even be the permanent appointee).
Just imagine what would be transpiring if the GOP had lost the Senate.
I thought keeping the Senate was probably the key to avoiding a really nasty confirmation battle over a Sessions replacement. McConnell says that since legislation will not be moving much, there will be plenty of time to approve both administrative and judicial nominees. Full speed ahead!
Good riddance — tho Jeff was good to support Trump early. But he’s a swamp creature; he shows this in being so non aggressive in other areas at the DOJ. I’ve heard, months ago and then silence, that in Utah Mr. Huber was a DOJ prosecutor looking at some swamp crimes.
There are so many past crimes the DOJ could be, and should be, looking into.
Especially Hillary’s email crimes and the obstruction of justice by the … DOJ and FBI. But also lying to FISA, and other violations of internal rules, as well as some laws.
Not at all sad to see him go.
I’ve wondered whether the public conflicts between the President and the Attorney-General might just be an act. Guess they weren’t.
I suspect in re Session that he’s basically a provincial square shooter outmaneuvered by the real swamp creature, Rod Rosenstein. I’d love to know who recommended Rosenstein and Christopher Wray for the positions they hold. That person should be roasting over a slow flame.
If I’m not mistaken, Matthew Whitaker is an interim replacement. No word yet on the President’s choice for a permanent replacement.
My guess right now is that in re Rosenstein, Mueller, and Wray, the President will float like a butterfly and sting like a be.
Sessions was a long term Senator, which is a private club with all sorts of benefits and very little work. If you read the Robert Caro biography of Lyndon Johnson you see that the Senate had been pretty much of a joke for 50 years. I still remember Fred Allan’s radio program that had a character called “Senator Claghorn” who was a caricature of a Senator. It was so popular that the same caricature was used in movie cartoons with a rooster and the same voice and mannerisms. here is the whole story.
The point is that Senators were objects of ridicule until Johnson came along and actually got things done. That is not to say that I approve of what he got done, at least some of it.
Sessions is a traditional Senator who did nothing much. It was a stretch to expect that he would do much as AG,
Meanwhile Trump has followed up by revoking Jim Acosta’s WH press pass:
Jim Acosta denied entrance to White House grounds; Sarah Sanders explains why:
“As a result of today’s incident, the White House is suspending the hard pass of the reporter involved until further notice.”
https://pjmedia.com/instapundit/312524/
Looks as if hit men are no longer welcome in the WH press corps.
And to back up her claims, Sanders shared a video from InfoWars. Hopefully this is not where she goes to learn about 911.
Trump has already announced that if the House Democrats want to go wild with subpoena and the like, he will be quite willing to return the favor via DoJ investigations and prosecutions of Obama Administration office holders.
It’s called “deterrence.”
While Sessions has done much quiet good work in the campaign and during his tenure at DoJ, he is not the hatch man that Trump will need if political warfare escalates as it looks like it will. Do you think Adam Schiff is scared of Sessions?
Sessions is a McClelland, not a Grant.
For whatever faults AG Sessions had wrt the Mueller investigation and DOJ stonewalling of Congressional requests, he did yeoman’s work on immigration reform that went widely unnoticed.
The timing of Session’s resignation, immediately after an election, is not unusual for administration changes. That is because it is the best time politically. I suspect Trump also wanted to see how the composition of the Senate played out; if the GOP lost control there it would have been very difficult to get a replacement, that he wants, confirmed. Trump also likely anticipated the Dems attacks on the removal of Sessions – that it is an attempt by Trump to undercut the Mueller investigation. While not obviously true that would have been an unhelpful narrative for the GOP leading up to the election.
I’m amused by the Democrats that were loudly calling for Session’s resignation a year or so ago that now are crying foul at him being sacked. They are shameless.
And to back up her claims, Sanders shared a video from InfoWars. Hopefully this is not where she goes to learn about 911. –manju
I am pretty sure she can get security at the White House without the telephone.
I would have liked to see two security guards take that poor deluded guy out, though; it would have had to have been one at each end of him. Therapeutic for him and everyone else.
PS Love that “hopefully.” Mr. Phony!
Video of Acosta making himself offensive and pushing off the aide who came to get the mic and pass it on to another questioner is widely available. I saw it happen live, as did many others. Blaming Trump and Sanders isn’t going to work, although CNN and NBC are trying.
The point is that Senators were objects of ridicule until Johnson came along and actually got things done.
John Sullivan (aka “Fred Allen”) lived variously in Boston, Chicago, New York, and on tour and spent his entire adult life in the entertainment business. He knew nothing of public affairs bar what any ordinary person knew from reading the papers.
The Senate who did nothing managed in conjunction with the House and the administration to supervise a rapid demobilization in 1945-47 which cut military expenditures by 80% and cut military manpower by more than 90%. It also composed and passed a raft of legislation during the period running from 1933 to 1937, some of it salutary (Glass-Steagall), some of it not (NIRA).
Members of Congress commonly work long hours and have to spend enormous blocs of time fund-raising. A great deal of this is activity rather than accomplishment, of course. House members are more likely to be sitting on their can reading newspapers because their electoral constituencies have protean boundaries which commonly exclude voters who could form a critical mass to unseat them. You have Maxine Waters in the House and not the Senate because no member of the Senate has as a constituency a contrived assemblage of metropolitan neighborhoods chock-a-bloc with people who will tolerate a loud and obstreperous nitwit in office. All Senate constituencies are a mix of core city, suburb, exurb, small town, and countryside and Senators are much more likely than House members to be bounced out of office.
The fact that “Senator Claghorn” was very popular is a suggestion that a lot of people in the 1940s did not agree with you on the Senate. The most effective Senators in that era were usually from the South, like Richard Russell and Walter George, who also saw that segregation was maintained. Effective Senators included Harry Truman and Carter Glass. There were lots of drones.
The book and movie “Advise and Consent” provided a pretty good picture.
I have read couple of items saying that Sessions is considering running for his old Senate seat in 2020, when Jones (D) has to run for re-election.
I have seen that, too, and think that is a good place for him. If he runs, he’ll win.
> Sessions is a McClelland, not a Grant.
I’d prefer Sherman or Sheridan.
As I really enjoy a lot of things Lincoln said, I especially grok his quip about Fightin’ Phil Sheridan’s height:
“I always thought military commanders should be 6’4″, but I look at Sheridan and realize 4’6″ will do just fine.”
Also don’t forget George Thomas, who really did ‘float like a butterfly and sting like a bee.’ Make that, ‘sting like a whole nest of hornets.’ He never got the recognition he deserved, because he was a Virginian; the Union command didn’t like him and the Confederates outright hated him. Thomas remained loyal to his nation and his West Point oath.
And to back up her claims, Sanders shared a video from InfoWars. Hopefully this is not where she goes to learn about 911. –manju
———————-
I have a suspicion that she and/or Trump chose InfoWars as the reference site BECAUSE they want to underscore – with MSM help – that all the web free speech controllers (Facebook, Twitter, Apple, and many more) have deplatformed InfoWars (as a proxy for deplatforming the rest of us deplorables).
If so, I approve!
The book and movie “Advise and Consent” provided a pretty good picture.
Unlike Fred Allen, Allen Drury actually worked the Capitol Hill beat; these were people he knew face-to-face. It’s been decades since I read the book, but I don’t recall it portraying Senators as useless drones. (Though one of the characters was a rutting animal a la Gary Hart and another a blackmailer).
I despise the Senate as an institution for a variety of reasons, but contending they just breathe in and out and collect fat salaries is a bum rap.
The most effective Senators in that era were usually from the South, like Richard Russell and Walter George, who also saw that segregation was maintained.
The state legislatures maintained segregation. What these characters saw to was that Congress would not exercise it’s options to disrupt the Southern legislatures’ schemes. Their tools were the Senate’s parliamentary rules. The northern majority could at any time have enacted a sensible set of parliamentary rules and then passed the necessary legislation. They couldn’t be bothered.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iMZfCar-Ks8
The Boston Irishman Fred Allen and the west coast Jews who ran Warner Brothers made sport of Southerners. Doesn’t mean they actually knew any.
PA Cat on November 7, 2018 at 9:18 pm at 9:18 pm said:
Meanwhile Trump has followed up by revoking Jim Acosta’s WH press pass:
* * *
I kinda wish Trump had invited Acosta to take the podium, and then just sat and waited for him to finish his rant, without speaking, and then asked the other journalists if they were ready for the President to come back up and Jim to sit down.
Then NEVER call on Acosta ever again (which is what should have been done long ago — let him come, never give him the mic) because he used up all his turns.
the Democrats are trying to pull their usual tricks to stymie the approval and/or effectiveness of his successor (and the person named so far—Matthew Whitaker—may not even be the permanent appointee)
Here is one route by which those “usual tricks” originated — with an assist from Hollywood via George Takei, political scientist extraordinaire. Matt Whitaker made the terrible decision to retweet another writer’s column, instead of passing it on in samizdat form: https://spectator.org/trekkies-and-other-anti-whitaker-treacheries/
A good column; the comments about Rosenstein make so plain how ludicrous this special prosecution has been from the start. Two years is long enough, Whitaker should order the final report and the budget should be reduced to a trickle.
Just imagine what would be transpiring if the GOP had lost the Senate. –Neo
No need to imagine, it should be a done deal in another month or so.
Sessions was correct to recuse himself. Can you imagine the outcry from both sides of the aisle if a campaign official who met with Russian officials was overseeing the Russia collusion investigation? Come on!
Rosenstein should also have recused himself too. This is the guy who signed off on every bogus FISA application put before him.
“Rosenstein should also have recused himself too. ”
Indeed.
But we all know that only Republicans have to follow any rules.
(And don’t anybody tell me he’s registered with the GOP — that is not apparently a determining factor in the situation anymore.)