Confederates Win Civil War

It's mere SOP to the GOP that those who would destroy a government department be named to run it. A Trump/Heritage Foundation/Big Oil cabinet will be the most extreme illustration to date, but it was inevitable: once Republicans gained control of all branches, new heights of klepto-kakistocracy were there for the grabbing.

For all that, the Jefferson Beauregard Nathan Bedford Forrest Sessions nomination is especially offensive, when his history is so long and familiar. Someone whose record was so terrible, even  Republicans under Reagan rejected him for a federal judgeship.

Since then, he has been a Senate fixture of the Confederate caucus. An early backer who became part of Trump's inner circle, he attended "Lock Her Up" rallies. Certainly, Sessions was well-positioned to encourage Twitler's rants about voter fraud. Sessions' reward (and his payback for 1986) will be the power to pound last nails in the coffin of voting rights. That's along with overseeing the FBI; anything related to federal enforcement of "justice" will be the purview of the anti-immigrant, anti-minority, anti-woman, anti-police accountability Sessions.

There will at least be historical witness to this. John Lewis has also lived long enough to remain a link to the struggle for civil rights. There's no forgetting that the near-lethal beating he survived in 1965 was at the hands of those who were the ideological allies of Jeff Sessions.Rep. Lewis testified against the nomination, as did Cory Booker; both spoke in a rare break from the usual displays of congressional collegiality.

Regarding Sessions' past abuses of power, an old "disgrace to his race" issued this statement.

Also introduced: a 1986 letter from Coretta Scott King, sent to, and then suppressed by, Judiciary Committee chair Strom Thurmond. Mrs. King wrote that the prospect of Sessions on the federal bench—

...raises serious questions about his commitment to the protection of the voting rights of all American citizens.

Anyone who has used the power of his office as United States Attorney to intimidate and chill the free exercise of the ballot by citizens should not be elevated to our courts....Mr. Sessions has used the awesome powers of his office in a shabby attempt to intimidate and frighten elderly black voters. For this reprehensible conduct, he should not be rewarded with a federal judgeship.

The irony of Mr. Sessions' nomination is that, if confirmed, he will be given a life tenure for doing with a federal prosecution what the local sheriffs accomplished twenty years ago with clubs and cattle prods...

And so: history on one side.

On the other: Southern Strategy. Jeff Stein at Vox tweeted this morning:

Trump team at the Sessions hearing just passed out a dossier citing an article about "how black Democrats stole votes"