NYT: Sessions Gets His Marching Orders from Bush Administration
The New York Times reports that during a recent Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on the US Attorneys Scandal, Jeff Sessions literally parroted talking points sent his way by the Bush administration:
The electronic messages, some written as recently as last month, offer a rare and almost contemporaneous account of the tactics used by a sitting administration trying to manage a political firestorm.
One e-mail message shows the White House urging the Justice Department to call Senator Jeff Sessions, Republican of Alabama, to give him information about the placement of J. Timothy Griffin, a former aide to Karl Rove, as the interim United States attorney in Arkansas.
“WH political reached out to Sen. Sessions and requested that he ask helpful questions to make clear that Tim Griffin is qualified to serve,” said a January 2007 e-mail message from Monica Goodling, a former senior aide to Mr. Gonzales, to other department officials. “Here are the talkers on Griffin, as well as a narrative that can be used by staff, and his résumé. I think it would actually be helpful for all of the Rs to have it.”
It was not clear whether the “talkers,” shorthand for talking points, were sent to Mr. Sessions and other “Rs,” or Republicans. But Mr. Sessions, in a later hearing on the matter, ran through all of the highlights, praising Mr. Griffin’s résumé, just as the White House and Justice had apparently requested.
These latest revelations serve as yet another stark reminder that Jeff Sessions is purely a rubber-stamp to the Bush agenda. When asked to carry water for the Bush administration and defend the politically-motivated firing of federal prosecutors, Sessions promptly complied.
But Sessions is much more than a mere rubber-stamp, he’s the Bush administration’s rubber-stamp of choice. As the email shows, when the White House needed a US Senator to take up their cause, they immediately turned to Jeff Sessions.
It’s far past time for Alabama to have independent representation in the US Senate. The people of Alabama deserve a US Senator who thinks for himself, rather than one who is only capable of reading from a list. A US Senator who takes his marching orders from the people of Alabama, not the White House Office of Political Affairs.
Why is it that Republicans tend to do all they can to get their people in lockstep, while Democrats let other members of the party wander all over the ideological spectrum. For this reason alone it’s preferable to vote Democratic, since while it’s a rare politician who will do much of what you want, you’ve got a better chance of getting a Democrat to listen to you as one of their constituents than you do getting a Republican to do the same. This was just as true when Bill Clinton was president and both houses of Congress were in Democratic hands. I don’t see why it would make a difference under President Next Democrat.
April 14th, 2007 at 4:55 pm[…] Jeff Sessions was able to effectively spew the GOP talking points (which we know he’s real good at) in attacking the Democratic proposal, he directly contradicts the statements of Bush’s own […]
April 19th, 2007 at 8:24 am