The choice of Alabama Senator Jeff Sessions as the point man in the Republican charge against Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor has just added more garbage to the roiling, boiling GOP cesspool. Know what that stink is? In 1986, President Ronald Reagan nominated Jeff Sessions to the federal bench and he became just the second man in 50 years to fail to be recommended for confirmation. Why?
Well, it has been described as “racial insensitivity,” which is just a nice combination of words for “bigotry.” Senator Sessions called both the NAACP and the ACLU “un-American” and “Communist-inspired.” Still others have heard him voice his admiration for the Ku Klux Klan. And here he is today spreading his particular brand of racism around during the Sotomayor hearings. He hasn’t even bothered to try to cover up his racism, and the GOP is doing nothing to quiet him down. What should we infer from that?
Sessions has suggested that Sotomayor pretend to be a white Catholic male while answering his questions. He also asked Sotomayor if she thought that “Latino women were more qualified to be hairdressers or house keepers?” This is a direct quotation here, people. We’re not making this up. Yesterday, someone asked me how the GOP can possibly let this guy say what he is saying. What do you think? I think it’s because it’s exactly the prevailing attitude within the existing GOP. They are bigots and hypocrites. He’s just the standard bearer.
Here are some links to the videos of the first few days of hearings on Sonia Sotomayor’s confirmation:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3036677/#31897838
Apparently the question surrounding Michelle Bachmann’s sanity has moved from “Is she crazy?” to “Just how crazy is she?” There’s no more disputing that she is; at this point it’s simply a question of degrees. I could get detailed and go on forever here, but instead we’ll let the Congresswoman make her own insanity plea by presenting some of her more memorable quotations:
This guy showed nothing but disdain for the media when he was our vice president, but now he can’t find enough venues in which to spew his vile, evil stew. I’m talking about none other than the original Dr. Evil, dancin’ Dick Cheney. He’s been making the rounds, telling everyone how Barack Obama’s policies are making America less safe. You know, the usual fearmongering tactics used by the Bush administration for eight years. Last week in his National Security speech, he mentioned the 9-11 terrorist attacks 23 times. Old habits die hard.
Well, never let it be said that self-described ‘moderate’ Se nator Susan Collins (R-ME) doesn’t dutifully tow the party line. During negotiations over Obama’s stimulus package, Collins managed to have the federal whistleblower protection removed. Way to go, Susan. Now it will be impossible to track whether or not the money is being used properly. That way it’s easier to make the program’s failures an issue around the 2010 midterm elections. See how that works? Oh, by the way, don’t let Senator Collins tell you it was removed because the expenditure did nothing to create jobs. If that’s what she was concerned with, she could have stripped out the $70 billion the Republicans stuffed into the bill to help the wealthiest earners avoid additional taxes.
