Would you like to place a wager on his nomination? Bork was likewise destroyed by lies. That's what Dems do.
Even left wing Politico agrees:
http://www.politico.com/story/2016/11/jeff-sessions-attorney-general-confirmation-231602
Ha! Now who was talking about changing the subject earlier? ....
In 1986, Reagan nominated Sessions to be a judge of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Alabama.
[12] Sessions's judicial nomination was recommended and actively backed by Republican Alabama Senator
Jeremiah Denton.
[13] A substantial majority of the
American Bar Association Standing Committee on the Federal Judiciary, which rates nominees to the federal bench, rated Sessions "qualified," with a minority voting that Sessions was "not qualified."
[14]
At Sessions' confirmation hearings before the Senate Judiciary Committee, four
Department of Justice lawyers who had worked with Sessions testified that he had made several
racist statements. One of those lawyers, J. Gerald Hebert, testified that Sessions had referred to the
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and the
American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) as "
un-American" and "
Communist-inspired" because they "forced
civil rights down the throats of people."
[15]
Thomas Figures, a black Assistant U.S. Attorney, testified that Sessions said he thought the
Ku Klux Klan was "OK until I found out they smoked
pot." Sessions later said that the comment was not serious, but did apologize for it.
[16] Figures also testified that on one occasion, when the
U.S. Department of Justice Civil Rights Division sent the office instructions to investigate a case that Sessions had tried to close, Figures and Sessions "had a very spirited discussion regarding how the Hodge case should then be handled; in the course of that argument, Mr. Sessions threw the file on a table, and remarked, 'I wish I could decline on all of them,'" by which Figures said Sessions meant civil rights cases generally. After becoming Ranking Member of the Judiciary Committee, Sessions was asked in an interview about his civil rights record as a U.S Attorney. He denied that he had not sufficiently pursued civil rights cases, saying that "when I was [a U.S. Attorney], I signed 10 pleadings attacking
segregation or the remnants of segregation, where we as part of the Department of Justice, we sought
desegregation remedies."
[17]
Figures also said that Sessions had called him "boy."
[12] He also testified that "Mr. Sessions admonished me to 'be careful what you say to white folks.'"
[18] Sessions was also reported to have called a white civil rights attorney a "disgrace to his race."
[19]
Sessions responded to the testimony by denying the allegations, saying his remarks were taken out of context or meant in jest, and also stating that groups could be considered un-American when "they involve themselves in un-American positions" on
foreign policy. Sessions said during testimony that he considered the Klan to be "a force for hatred and bigotry." In regards to the marijuana quote, Sessions said the comment was a joke but apologized.
[16]
In response to a question from
Joe Biden on whether he had called the NAACP and other civil rights organizations "un-American", Sessions replied "I'm often loose with my tongue. I may have said something about the NAACP being un-American or Communist, but I meant no harm by it."
[14]
On June 5, 1986, the Committee voted 10–8 against recommending the nomination to the Senate floor, with Republican Senators
Charles Mathias of
Maryland and
Arlen Specter of
Pennsylvania voting with the Democrats. It then split 9–9 on a vote to send Sessions' nomination to the Senate floor with no recommendation, this time with Specter in support. A majority was required for the nomination to proceed.
[20] The pivotal votes against Sessions came from his home state's Democratic Senator
Howell Heflin of Alabama (ironically, Sessions would succeed Heflin in the Senate just a decade later). Although Heflin had previously backed Sessions, he began to oppose Sessions after hearing testimony, concluding that there were "reasonable doubts" over Sessions' ability to be "fair and impartial." The nomination was withdrawn on July 31, 1986.
[14]
opcorn:
