Jeff Sessions Once Said He Thought Klan Was Okay Until He Learned They Smoked Pot
Judiciary Committee ranking Republican Senator Jeff Sessions of Alabama, who grilled Sonia Sotomayor over issues of race, faced a similar grilling in 1986 when he was nominated to a district court. Ironically, past statements of his got him in enough trouble to lose the nomination.
…according to sworn statements by Justice Department lawyers, Sessions called the NAACP and the American Civil Liberties Union “communist inspired” and said they tried to “force civil rights down the throats of people.” Sessions reportedly said of the Ku Klux Klan that he “used to think they’re OK” until he learned that some Klan members were “pot smokers.” Sessions said his words were in jest or had been misrepresented.
Sessions’ own sponsor and some party members even turned against him, and the Republican-controlled judiciary committee turned him down.
The committee held four hearings during one of which Sessions pleaded that “I am not a racist.” [Justice Department lawyer J. Gerald] Hebert also testified that Sessions had called a white civil rights lawyer a “disgrace to his race” for litigating voting rights cases. His nomination failed in committee on a 10 to 8 vote, with [Senator Arlen] Specter joining the nominee’s original patron, Sen. Howell Heflin (D-Ala.) in dooming the nomination.
Thomas Figures, a black former Assistant US Attorney in Alabama, added more fuel to the fire when he testified against Sessions.
Sessions, he said, had called him “boy” and, after overhearing him chastise a secretary, warned him to “be careful what you say to white folks.” Figures echoed Hebert’s claims, saying he too had heard Sessions call various civil rights organizations, including the National Council of Churches and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, “un-American.” Sessions denied the accusations but again admitted to frequently joking in an off-color sort of way. In his defense, he said he was not a racist, pointing out that his children went to integrated schools and that he had shared a hotel room with a black attorney several times.
Haven’t read the article yet. The has me LMAO though. In my book double whammy against him.
July 14th, 2009 at 8:42 pm
De Laws-a-Massy
July 14th, 2009 at 8:52 pm
He leaves me COLD! I can’t help but picture him with his KKK hood on. I doubt he’s changed his mind from earlier segregation days when other folks didn’t bother whites.
July 14th, 2009 at 9:05 pm
While it might be hard for a New York Yankee like Colmes to comprehend, the American Civil War never really ended in many places “down South”. The battles have only slowed up a bit so that the sons of the Confederacy can regroup and prepare to mount their counter-attacks.
Senator Jefferson Beauregard “Jeff” Sessions III.
Jefferson Finis Davis: President of the Confederate States of America.
Pierre Gustave Toutant Beauregard: appointed the first general officer in the armed forces of the new Confederacy, commanded the rebel siege on Fort Sumter that started the Civil War.
Sessions is the namesake of Confederate President Jefferson Davis and Confederate General Pierre Beauregard.
Generally, Blacks and Browns aren’t very popular in much of the white South. They’re only tolerated as employees. Parts of the white South still doesn’t care much for Catholics and Jews either. In fact, if you aren’t white and Baptist you probably shouldn’t count on that Dallas County Alabama Country Club membership going through.
So? You thought this was the 21st century?
flap Reply:
July 17th, 2009 at 7:04 am
“many” “much”
To use a term Alan loves, isn’t a little BIGOTED to be stereotyping most white Southerners in this fashion?
July 14th, 2009 at 9:19 pm
I heard some of this senator’s questions today.
He didn’t appear to fluster Sotomayor too badly.
Seemed disappointed about it, he did.
EricG Reply:
July 15th, 2009 at 6:27 pm
That was my take on it too, James.
He seemed like he was expecting her to break down and start crying before him.
When she handled it like a champion he had one of those ‘moments in time’ kind of look about him.
Like he just couldn’t believe it was happening in front of him.
I think this is an agenda of his, thankfully it’s a losing one.
July 14th, 2009 at 10:16 pm
My prediction is the Republicans will be OUT of power FOREVER as a majority party.
All they’ve got is old white extremist crackers and a girl high school basketball player from Alaska that managed to FINISH college after only FIVE COLLEGES. It is the last thing she finished until riding the 2008 GOP into the dirt.
Palin will splinter what little is left of the GOP in a twisted “3rd party” GOP try for VP again in 2012 with Willard Romney. Libertarians will also splinter the Republican party 50/50 in 2012.
Obama will cruise to a 2012 victory. At the end of his term he will be elected Head of the UN in time for all the Dittoheads exploding.
average james Reply:
July 15th, 2009 at 1:55 am
Sounds plausible 4more.
jasperjava Reply:
July 15th, 2009 at 10:10 am
I think by the end of Obama’s second term there will be a movement to repeal the 22nd amendment so he can run a third time. He’ll only be in his mid-fifties. It would be a shame to force him to retire if the people still want him.
Um Cara Reply:
July 15th, 2009 at 11:35 am
Hahaha.. Let’s hope not.
I hope that at the end of his first term the Democrats instead nominate a liberal to run, and Obama goes on his merry way to some other job.
Ronald Reply:
July 15th, 2009 at 1:15 pm
President Barack H Obama is one of the smartest presidents we’ve had in decades. And I believe also one of the most honest. Bar none!
Ronald Reply:
July 15th, 2009 at 1:11 pm
Maybe instead a four year term as president he can be extended to a six-year term. Which gives the individual time to get things done. I really believe a four-year term is way too short. One reason is two years before the election they have to start running again. We also should include that no person can it announce their desire to run for president within one year. Meaning no one can run one year before the date of the presidential election, they have one year to do it in and only one year.
Kregg Reply:
July 15th, 2009 at 11:41 am
4more said: All they’ve got is old white extremist crackers and a girl high school basketball player from Alaska that managed to FINISH college after only FIVE COLLEGES. It is the last thing she finished until riding the 2008 GOP into the dirt.
K: If you think a person who attended multiple colleges before receiving a degree is stupid what must you think the large number of people on this board who never even attended a college much less graduating from one?
4moreyears Reply:
July 15th, 2009 at 1:40 pm
Republicans?
EricG Reply:
July 15th, 2009 at 6:36 pm
Well, that’s a interesting take on things.
I have a little Political Science thing for you:
The Fall of The Whigg Party
—
There is specific formula (so says Poli Sci) for a significant party to fail be absorbed forever by time.
They are in stage one.
Allowing the fringe elements and radical slanderous persons claiming leadership of the party.
Propaganda over substance.
–
Geez, I haven’t read any of these books in awhile … I can’t remember the rest right now.
Downfall of a party … I won’t cry.
July 14th, 2009 at 11:21 pm
How would he like to be treated and judged, as he treated and judged others. With the amount of education he has, how can he still be a racist. And I believe that we as a society are still in our adolescence, “especially the senator”, with the way he/us treat each other. The best way to handle Senator Jeff Sessions is to show his true coders then vote him out of office
average james Reply:
July 15th, 2009 at 1:56 am
Yah, vote him out is the way to do it.
Southern Girl Lib Reply:
July 15th, 2009 at 9:06 am
He’s a senator from Alabama. In this state white racist yahoos are not only tolerated, they are elevated up high on a golden pedestal. The only way he’s leaving the senate is in a pine box.
July 15th, 2009 at 1:39 am
The white South has traditionally been the racist South, and all you have to do is ask around and you’ll find plenty of people who’ll tell you that, except in front of TV cameras, things haven’t really changed all that much.
As for the Civil War, that was obviously a Pyrrhic Victory, since the states that remained loyal to the union ended up saddled with the traitor states.
July 15th, 2009 at 2:36 am
Damn Yankee carpetbaggers haven’t changed one bit. Northern Ninnys, what jerks.
jasperjava Reply:
July 15th, 2009 at 10:23 am
Nostalgic for Jim Crow and the confederacy, are you? Too bad things didn’t work out so well for your side, but we prefer to abide by 21st-Century values.
RDM Reply:
July 15th, 2009 at 10:48 am
I am nostalgic about the Civil War, and yes, I don’t like Yankee arrogance.
Ronald Reply:
July 15th, 2009 at 10:27 am
With the amount of education that the senator from Alabama has, you would believe that he would be blind to racial, religious and social groups. He was one of nine Senators who voted against a Senate amendment to a House bill that prohibited cruel, inhumane, or degrading treatment or punishment of individuals in the custody or under the physical control of the United States Government. The best way to handle Senator Jeff Sessions is to vote him out of office.
July 15th, 2009 at 6:46 am
I never felt like a Carpetbagger, I’m in the Mid-Atlantic States. Yes alot of Southerners are racist, but I never knew that all the KKK members smoked Pot. Well you learn something new everyday.
RDM Reply:
July 15th, 2009 at 8:23 am
I would say alot of Mid-Atlantic folks are racist and smoke pot.
Celticwitch Reply:
July 15th, 2009 at 3:26 pm
No we don’t, well I am anti-drug, the South are more racist then the North, now why did the South have slaves? Where those Plantation owners really lazy to work their own fieids, or was that cotton that was picked, did they love to get all scratched up. Those
Damn I am so close to Philly. I am a liberal and have some Native American in me. Watch it.
RDM Reply:
July 15th, 2009 at 7:59 pm
“why did the South have slaves”??
Ask the slaveholders in the North. Officially slavery ended in Pennsylvania with the state ratification of the 13th admendment of February 3, 1865. Not before, but the year the Civil War ended.
And since your part Native American… slaves were held in Indian Territories until 1866.
RDM Reply:
July 15th, 2009 at 8:29 pm
Celticwitch
Slaves were freed in any state of the Confederate States of America in 1862.
Slaves in the Northern States were freed after the war ended in 1865.
Didn’t seem fair at the time.
Um Cara Reply:
July 15th, 2009 at 8:41 pm
Come on, RDM – everyone knows that racism is confined to the South.
Take the Rodney King beating, for example. Where did it occur?
That’s right Southern California.
July 15th, 2009 at 8:09 am
I knew it, dammit, I KNEW it. He throws like a sissy! And he probably practiced those 3-point shots for WEEKS.
pizzaman
GuidoVanHorn Reply:
July 15th, 2009 at 11:38 am
I’d rather see a wild pitch over the head of the catcher than a weak one hopper.
I don’t get what they think they’ll do…are they afraid of hurting the professional baseball player that is catching your weak throw?
July 15th, 2009 at 8:49 am
In his defense, he said he was not a racist, pointing out that his children went to integrated schools and that he had shared a hotel room with a black attorney several times.~ Sessions
That was mighty white of you Jefferson Beauregard.
atomaino Reply:
July 15th, 2009 at 10:20 am
WOW Even B.O.’s kids don’t go to an intigrated school! Why can’t Obama’s children attend the D.C. Public Schooling system just like everyone else’s kids? I mean who needs vouchers anyways!
jasperjava Reply:
July 15th, 2009 at 10:36 am
Ummm… Sidwell Friends school is integrated. According to wikipedia, 39% of the students come from ethnic minorities.
Why should Sasha and Malia go to public schools, if their parents can afford something better? D.C.’s public schools aren’t necessarily bad – they’re probably good enough, but why settle for “good enough” if you don’t have to? There’s the security issue as well. Maybe the Secret Service can clue you in.
average james Reply:
July 15th, 2009 at 12:03 pm
Ato,
The security issue is huge.
Think about it, just for a minute.
Makes sense, doesn’t it.
GuidoVanHorn Reply:
July 15th, 2009 at 3:08 pm
security is an issue no matter what…
didn’t Jimmy Carter send his daughter to public school.
July 15th, 2009 at 9:04 am
I wonder what Robert Byrd Thinks about all this?
jasperjava Reply:
July 15th, 2009 at 10:26 am
Don’t you think that if Robert Byrd was still a racist he would have left the Democratic Party a long time ago with the rest of the Dixiecrats, and joined the Republicans?
Kregg Reply:
July 15th, 2009 at 10:35 am
No.
jasperjava Reply:
July 15th, 2009 at 10:40 am
Then you’re not aware that racist Dixiecrats deserted the Democratic Party en masse to join the Republicans in the 60’s? You’ve never heard of Strom Thurmond, to cite just one example? Or homegrown GOP racists like Jesse Helms and Trent Lott?
July 15th, 2009 at 10:18 am
[...] Here is a bit more of his background. [...]
July 15th, 2009 at 10:57 am
Obama Worship, just like Palin Hatred, is definately an illness.
Goodbye reason…it was nice knowing ya’.
TDro319 Reply:
July 15th, 2009 at 1:54 pm
Obama hatred, just like Palin worship, is definitely an illness.
Goodbye reason…it was nice knowing ya.
July 15th, 2009 at 1:25 pm
I forgot all about Sessions.
He makes the Neo-Nazis proud.
July 15th, 2009 at 6:21 pm
[...] don’t actually object to racism try and tar her as a racist. Jeff “calls black men boy” Sessions? [...]
July 16th, 2009 at 2:42 am
Attack the messanger not the message? Sound typical of the left…((and right))
July 16th, 2009 at 4:05 pm