Jeff Sessions’ Revenge Tragedy
Elizabethan era philosopher Francis Bacon once wrote “Revenge is a kind of wild justice, which the more man’s nature runs to the more ought law to weed it out.” The “Revenge Tragedy” was born from the quill pen of Thomas Kyd in his 16th Century Spanish Tragedy in which the ghost of the wrongly killed Don Andrea returns along side a spirit named Revenge. It’s a complicated plot, revenge always is, and I will only muddy this column by explaining it (I have the drafts for proof).
It could be said the revenge tragedy went out of style with the development of a strong legal system that addresses grievances and punishes those who wrong others. Revenge is also a Cardinal sin and just a few decades after Kyd’s tragedy we see Shakespeare’s hero Hamlet agonizingly wrestle with it himself—though, in the end, it did not stop him from killing his step-father/uncle.
Of course any person who has reached the ripe old age of five knows revenge has not been weeded out. Political observers and C-Span junkies could see the spirit of revenge sitting upon the shoulder of Republican Senator Jeff Sessions of Alabama during the Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearing for Judge Sonia Sotomayor to join the U.S. Supreme Court.
Prefacing all this, let me say–unlike other columnists–I am no mind-reader and I have no doubt that various factors influence Sessions and other Republicans’ opposition to Sotomayor’s elevation to the the high bench. Arguments that Republicans are drawing a fine line for Obama to cross in appointing future Supreme Court nominees and lower federal court positions are valid. But revenge is always accompanied by a sense of madness that not even the best intentions nor the glare of a national audience can shoo away.
I know Jeff Sessions. I have interviewed him more than a dozen times. He is a cordial and simple man who sees things in sharp contrasts. He is clearly from that stock of Americans who hold firm beliefs in god, country and family. He is also someone I assume (we all know what ass/u/me means) is subject to a strong visceral reaction like revenge. It’s not hard to see where this spirit in the Senator could originate.
In 1986 Jeff Sessions had his own nomination to the federal bench in Alabama blocked by the very committee that he now sits atop of as the ranking Republican. At his confirmation hearing in the Senate Judiciary Committee a former colleague of his testified that Sessions said the KKK was all right until he found out members of the white supremest group smoked pot. He also called the NAACP an un-American organization that tried to shove civil rights down people’s throats.
During the 1986 confirmation hearing, former Chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee and current Vice President Joe Biden called on President Ronald Reagan to withdraw the nomination and Democratic Senator Ted Kennedy called Sessions a “throwback to a shameful era.” With Arlen Specter crossing the aisle, at the time he was a Republican, Sessions’ nomination was killed. (Specter later said he regretted that vote saying Sessions was a fine man)
Twenty three years later Sessions got his revenge as he lead his party’s opposition to the confirmation of Judge Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court. This opportunity rendered the chance for Sessions to not seek avengement but make amends over his own past by seeing through Sotomayor’s own statements. Instead he leads a panel of seven Republicans, all white males, with questions clearly insinuating that it is Sotomayor, not Sessions, who has a problem with race.
Session’s repeatedly questioned the Judge during the confirmation hearing about two previous statements she made: “a Wise Latina woman, with the richness of her experiences, would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male,” and that she “willingly accepts that we who judge must not deny the differences resulting from experience and heritage.”
Sotomayor responded: “I think the system is strengthened when judges don’t assume they’re impartial, but when judges test themselves to identify when their emotions are driving a result, or their experience are driving a result and the law is not.”
Session’s response: “I agree with that.”
Ok, done deal. We’ve worked it out! The deep South and the Bronx coming together. This could had been a beautiful moment for the country. An apocrophal story for the history books in providing instruction to future generations on how to get together. But a week later, Sessions announced his opposition to Sotomayor…who will break a very real glass ceiling by becoming the first Latina to serve on the Supreme Court.
“I hope I am wrong,” he said on the Senate floor last week, “but my best judgment, my decision is that a Sotomayor vote on the Court–the Supreme Court–will be another vote for the new kind of ideological judging, not the kind of objectivity and restraint that have served our legal system in our Nation so well.”
Now, assuming Sessions believes he would uphold his own standard himself, lets compare back to back past statements made by Sessions and Sotomayor.
Sessions: “I thought the KKK was ok until I found out they smoke pot,” Sessions allegedly said. (He never denied it but said it was a joke taken out of context. Did other such jokes include calling a white civil rights lawyer a disgrace to his race?)
Sotomayor: “a Wise Latina woman, with the richness of her experiences, would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male.” (Sotomayor during her hearing said that it was a rhetorical flair that fell flat and that she regretted how it came off.).
Sotomayor is vying for one of the most powerful positions in the land. The Supreme Court tops a co-equal branch of the government with the power to negate laws passed by Congress and to repudiate the President. She should be asked about those and any other statement that may trouble anyone who could be effected by future decisions
she’ll make on the Court.
But what an opportunity this could have been for Jeff Sessions and Republicans in general to make amends, to make past statements the past and to take a significant step forward in easing tensions around race and politics.
But, with only 5 or so Republicans announcing their support for Sotomayor (2 of them women and 1 latino), it could make next week’s Senate vote resemble more like that of Justice Samuel Alito (who had one of the narrowest votes in confirmation history) than that of Chief Justice John Roberts who had broad bi-partisan support.
If so, it would be a sad case of Sessions’ Revenge and one can only hope a harbinger of a grand old party that continues to sink into oblivion just like the southern-cotton Whig party did.
Mitch Jeserich is a seasoned political journalist who has reported from Sacramento and Washington, D.C. for Pacifica Radio. He is currently the Executive Producer of KPFA’s Morning Show in the Bay Area.
Senator Sessions is the epitome of everything that is wrong with America. Talk about stereotypes about places like Alabam. Thank God the good’ole boy era is slowly but surely coming to pass. America is more diverse than ever before, and I can understand why angry Billy Bob is doing his best to prevent a new America from happening. It’s demographics, Billy Bob: it’s inevitable!!! You lost!!! Get over it:-)
There are tens-of-millions of Americans who love the imperfect democracy / country they were born into and grew up in, and don’t think a transformed America is required. Tthe good old boy era is thriving in Congress as well as the White House.
but the world is changing, not just the US – and the imperfect democracy part hasn’t changed….we still have a ways to go to get to justice for all…..now that we have a new Justice – forward with the rest of the work! repeal DADT and create marriage equality nation-wide! health care reform! bust the bankers!