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Title: Jeff Sessions Confirmed as Attorney General, Capping Bitter Battle
Source:
ny timrs.com
URL Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/08/ ... general-confirmation.html?_r=0
Published: Feb 8, 2017
Author: ERIC LICHTBLAU and MATT FLEGENHEIMER
Post Date: 2017-02-08 21:04:52 by Stoner
Keywords: None
Views: 5288
Comments: 23
WASHINGTON — Senator Jeff Sessions of Alabama was confirmed on Wednesday as President Trump’s attorney general, capping a bitter and racially charged nomination battle that crested with the procedural silencing of a leading Democrat, Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, who had criticized the Alabama Republican from the Senate floor. Mr. Sessions survived a near-party-line vote, 52 to 47, the latest sign of the extreme partisanship at play as Mr. Trump strains to install his cabinet. No Republicans broke ranks in their support of a colleague who will become the nation’s top law enforcement official after two decades in the Senate. But the confirmation process — ferocious even by the standards of moldering decorum that have defined the body’s recent years — laid bare the Senate’s deep divisions at the outset of the Trump presidency. At the same time, the latest star turn for Ms. Warren rekindled the gender-infused politics that animated the presidential election and the women’s march protesting Mr. Trump the day after his inauguration last month. Democrats spent the hours before the vote on Wednesday seething over the treatment of Ms. Warren, who had been barred from speaking on the floor the previous night. Late Tuesday, Republicans voted to formally silence Ms. Warren after the senator read from a 1986 letter by Coretta Scott King that criticized Mr. Sessions for using “the awesome power of his office to chill the free exercise of the vote by black citizens” while serving as a United States attorney in Alabama. Continue reading the main story The Trump White House Stories about President Trump’s administration. Pentagon Unit Considered Setting Up a Secret Overseas Prison FEB 8 Why the Defense Dept. Is Looking to Lease Space in Trump Tower FEB 8 Shutting Down Speech by Elizabeth Warren, G.O.P. Amplifies Her Message FEB 8 Jake Tapper and Kellyanne Conway Clashed. Will Critics Take On Tapper? FEB 8 Coretta Scott King’s 1986 Statement to the Senate About Jeff Sessions FEB 8 See More » Related Coverage Shutting Down Speech by Elizabeth Warren, G.O.P. Amplifies Her Message FEB. 8, 2017 Since Mr. Trump announced his choice for attorney general, Mr. Sessions’s history with issues of race had assumed center stage. A committee hearing on his nomination included searing indictments from black Democratic lawmakers like Representative John Lewis of Georgia, the civil rights icon, and Senator Cory Booker of New Jersey, who broke with Senate tradition to testify against a peer. How Senators Voted on Jeff Sessions The Senate voted to confirm Jeff Sessions as attorney general. For weeks, Republicans have rejected any suggestion that Mr. Sessions cannot be trusted on civil rights, arguing that he had been tarnished unfairly over accusations of racial insensitivity that have dogged him since the 1980s. “Everybody in this body knows Senator Sessions well, knows that he is a man of integrity, a man of principle,” Senator Dan Sullivan, Republican of Alaska, said during the debate on Wednesday afternoon. The “twisting” of Mr. Sessions’s record offended him, he said, even as Democrats continued their attacks on the nominee. As the 84th attorney general, Mr. Sessions brings a sharply conservative bent to the Justice Department and its 113,000 employees. A former prosecutor, he promises a focus aligned with Mr. Trump in pushing a “law and order” agenda that includes tougher enforcement of laws on immigration, drugs and gun trafficking. Civil rights advocates worry, however, that he will reverse steps taken by the Obama administration in the last eight years to bring more accountability to police departments, state and local governments, and employers. Advocates point to his history of votes against various civil rights measures, as well as the accusations of racial insensitivity. Senator Patty Murray, a Washington Democrat, said on Wednesday that on civil rights, immigration, abortion, criminal sentencing guidelines and a range of other issues, Mr. Sessions had been far outside the mainstream and had pushed “extreme policies” often targeting minorities. Get the Morning Briefing by Email What you need to know to start your day, delivered to your inbox Monday through Friday. Receive occasional updates and special offers for The New York Times's products and services. See Sample Privacy Policy That criticism peaked with Tuesday night’s rebuke of Ms. Warren, based on an arcane Senate rule that prevents members from impugning the character of a fellow senator, as she read the letter from Mrs. King. The widow of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Mrs. King wrote the letter in response to Mr. Sessions’s 1986 nomination for a federal judgeship, for which he was ultimately rejected in part because of accusations that he had been insensitive to minorities as a prosecutor. Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Republican majority leader, led the objection against Ms. Warren. His explanation afterward — “She was warned, she was given an explanation, nevertheless, she persisted” — instantly became a liberal rallying cry, re-establishing Ms. Warren as a leading voice of Democratic resistance to Mr. Trump. “What hit me the hardest was, it is about silence,” Ms. Warren said to a group of civil rights leaders on Wednesday at the Capitol, after being barred from speaking on Mr. Sessions in the chamber. “It’s about trying to shut people up. It’s about saying, ‘no, no, no, just go ahead and vote.’” Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the Democratic leader, asserted on the Senate floor on Wednesday that the vote was “totally, totally uncalled-for,” and he said it reflected an “anti-free speech attitude” emanating from the White House. He and other Democrats said the censure served to mute legitimate criticism of Mr. Sessions’s record on civil rights and racial issues — one of their main avenues of attack at his contentious nomination hearing last month. The vote on Mr. Sessions came a day after Senate Republicans broke through a bottleneck in Mr. Trump’s nominees by approving Betsy DeVos, the embattled Republican donor, as education secretary with the help of a tiebreaking vote by Vice President Mike Pence. With Mr. Sessions’s confirmation, votes are expected in coming days on the nominations of Representative Tom Price of Georgia as secretary of health and human services, and Steven T. Mnuchin as Treasury secretary. U.S. & Politics By THE NEW YORK TIMES 1:41 Spicer Responds to King Letter on Sessions Video Spicer Responds to King Letter on Sessions Asked about a letter that Coretta Scott King wrote regarding Jeff Sessions in 1986, the White House press secretary said he “would respectfully disagree with her assessment of Senator Sessions then and now.” By THE NEW YORK TIMES on Publish Date February 8, 2017. Photo by Mark Wilson/Getty Images. Watch in Times Video » embed ShareTweet Mr. Sessions’s path to confirmation hit another snag that riled Democrats and energized opponents of his nomination: Mr. Trump’s dramatic firing of the acting attorney general. Last week, Mr. Trump abruptly dismissed Sally Q. Yates, the acting attorney general, setting off a fierce backlash from Democrats against Mr. Sessions’s nomination to fill her job on a permanent basis. Ms. Yates, a holdover from the Obama administration, was fired for refusing to defend Mr. Trump’s controversial order barring travel by some foreigners, which is now tied up in litigation in federal courts. Democrats seized on her firing to say that Mr. Sessions is too close to the president to be independent or stand up to him. As the first senator to support Mr. Trump’s long-shot bid for president last year, Mr. Sessions became an influential campaign adviser. While he pledged repeatedly not to be “a mere rubber stamp” for the White House, Democrats asserted that he would not be willing to challenge legally questionable policies like the travel ban or the president’s threats to reinstitute torture against terrorism suspects. The arguments failed to sway any Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee, which voted, 11 to 9, on a straight party-line vote last week to approve Mr. Sessions’s nomination. Senator Charles E. Grassley, the Iowa Republican who leads the Senate Judiciary Committee, expressed confidence that Mr. Sessions would be a “fair and evenhanded” attorney general and would make good on his pledges to enforce even those laws he voted against in the Senate. “There should be no question,” Mr. Grassley said, “that he is more than qualified to be the nation’s top law enforcement officer.” Pop the popcorn, and Let the Games Begin !!!
I would suspect that in DC, stocks of adult depends have sold out, LOL.
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#1. To: Stoner (#0)
I am worried about my pot farm. What can I do to save my crops?
Just tell every one that it is spinach , plow it under, or put up a sign that says , FREE and just just give it away. Si vis pacem, para bellum Rebellion to tyrants is obedience to God. There can be no divided allegiance here. Any man who says he is an American, but something else also, isn't an American at all. We have room for but one flag, the American flag... We have room for but one language here, and that is the English language... and we have room for but one sole loyalty and that is a loyalty to the American people."Theodore Roosevelt-1907. I am concerned for the security of our great nation; not so much because of any threat from without, but because of the insidious forces working from within." -- General Douglas MacArthur
I am more afraid of the government helicopters spreading paraquat on my farm, than ever before. I think the best pot in the world should be presented in the Sun, under well managed control, such as my studious, managed pot farms. All of a sudden we have a government: Evil government, attempting Paraquat extermination of my plants under Sessions! Long live FREEDOM!
No, they must keep it all natural and organic. They can just bring in a few dump trucks and loads of salt. You can then convery to a seaweed farm.
The cartoon character, Pocahauntis, is scheduling herself to replace cartoon character Hillary as the next seeker of the presidency.
As I recall, they used paraquat in Mexico and Central America. Not in the States. Your Yankee wacky weed is probably safe.
Not with Sessions in control of the wheel.
You should be. Especially if you live in California. Session's first act should be to send in the DEA and shut down every marijuana store and burn the crops. Then arrest the owners and growers and sentence them to 5 years in federal prison. After that, go after every state lawmaker who engaged in acts of sedition when they passed the state legalization laws contrary to federal laws and put them in the same cage. Or, pass a federal law making marijuana legal. Either way.
I've no doubt that Sessions would like to. But would Trump want to burn so much political capital on pursuing weed, especially since it has gained such a foothold in a number of states? Maine was the most recent to legalize recreational pot, the eighth state to do so. If they aren't going to enforce the federal law, they need to put it on a lower federal drug schedule or just send it back to the states entirely. A move like that could, politically, pave the way for what they want to do with other programs/agencies like the abortion issue, Department of Education, ObamaCare, etc. And it is one of the few things the GOP could do to make themselves more popular with the younger voters. It would also deprive the cartels of a lot of income.
Confirming that you are a liar.
Does he have a choice? He ran as the law and order candidate. How can he possibly instruct Sessions not to enforce federal law? So there's that. In addition, California isn't doing itself any favors by hating Trump. Let me count the ways: You got the Hollywood types. Uber-liberal colleges prohibiting conservative speakers. In-your face sanctuary cities. LA gangs. Illegals up the ying-yang spouting Aztlán nonsense. Massive (suspected) voter fraud. 62% Hillary support in 2016 and unlikely to go Republican in our lifetime. Talks of secession. If I were Trump, I wouldn't give a FF about California.
I agree that there are issues that should be returned to states. I would add food stamps and welfare, which I believe Trump is also considering. But illegal recreational drugs? We tried doing that at the state level with alcohol and it didn't work. I'm sure you could make a strong legal, technical, and constitutional argument why the state should decide. And I might even agree with you. But we both know it wouldn't work -- unless, like alcohol, every state legalized it. Or every state banned it. Already, Nebraska and Oklahoma sued Colorado for marijuana coming into their states from Colorado. Is this the way to run a country -- have more and more states violate federal law until the federal government just gives up? What if states did this with civil rights? Guns? Gay rights? Child labor laws? Pick an issue.
We tried national prohibition and it didn't work. While FDR remained a staunch Prohibitionist personally, the cities, counties and states were flat on their backs, desperate for sin taxes. And only alcohol could fill that void. So Prohibition was repealed. It never worked well anyway. I would say that, much as with Prohibition's enforcement failures, we have reached a critical point and they can't put the pot genie back into the bottle. Trump will likely have to pick: go after illegals or go after pot. And even one of those will be a major challenge, given the Blue states and liberal federal judges who will oppose anything Trump does. Trump had better pick his battles. His blitzkrieg can only go so long and then he will have to deal with politics as other presidents do (barring some major 9/11 type attack which would enhance his power tremendously). I would argue that this did happen with both guns and with sodomy laws. Laws get repealed when the citizenry make it clear they won't obey them. It happens even more quickly when juries start nullifying the law itself in trials.
Which is why I asked, "Is this the way to run a country -- have more and more states violate federal law until the federal government just gives up?" Perhaps you pooh-pooh this anarchistic approach because you favor the issue or simply consider it harmless. And the next time ... when you don't favor the issue? At that point, have arrived at the rule of man, not the rule of law.
No doubt that sounds noble enough but laws are enacted (and repealed and overruled) on a daily basis by men. So I can't be too impressed with your flowery prose.
Sessions: “I thought those guys [the Ku Klux Klan] were OK until I learned they smoked pot.” After that, go after every state lawmaker who engaged in acts of sedition when they passed the state legalization laws contrary to federal laws and put them in the same cage. And the insane "Reefer Madness" cultist and states' rights hater posts his fascist wet dreams. Correct. And they're applied equally to all. Are our drug laws being applied equally to all, or are exceptions to the rule of law being made based on the feckless decision of one man? I call that the rule of man. Nothing flowery about it.
Bucky, I must say that I am rather surprised at you. I had not realized that you were so pro pot. I have read a lot of your posts, but never got the impression that you were such an advocate. But maybe I just was not paying attention.
Si vis pacem, para bellum Rebellion to tyrants is obedience to God. There can be no divided allegiance here. Any man who says he is an American, but something else also, isn't an American at all. We have room for but one flag, the American flag... We have room for but one language here, and that is the English language... and we have room for but one sole loyalty and that is a loyalty to the American people."Theodore Roosevelt-1907. I am concerned for the security of our great nation; not so much because of any threat from without, but because of the insidious forces working from within." -- General Douglas MacArthur
Currently, the judiciary and much of the government are still operating at Obama's default "selective enforcement" on illegal aliens which mostly meant "you can get deported for serious crimes, well, maybe". Trump is mounting a major challenge to that idea, along with opposing unknown travel/immigration from seven Muslim countries. I tend to think that Trump and Sessions will have their hands full with immigration and the wall and the pipelines and other issues. I think pot is likely to take low priority for enforcement.
Sessions has 3 bigger priorities than pot, at least for now. Before Sessions’ took the oath of office from Vice President Pence, Trump used the occasion to announce a new series of executive actions, directing federal law enforcement to step up their efforts against international drug cartels, creating a national task force on violent crime and launching an effort to protect local police from violence. “A new era of justice begins,” Trump said. “And it begins right now.”
Unfortunately, yes, he has bigger priorities.
#2. To: buckeroo (#1)
" I am worried about my pot farm. What can I do to save my crops? "
#3. To: Stoner (#2)
#4. To: buckeroo, Stoner (#3)
All of a sudden we have a government: Evil government, attempting Paraquat extermination of my plants under Sessions!
#5. To: Stoner (#0)
a liberal rallying cry, re-establishing Ms. Warren as a leading voice of Democratic resistance to Mr. Trump.
#6. To: buckeroo (#3)
attempting Paraquat extermination
#7. To: Tooconservative (#6)
As I recall, they used paraquat in Mexico and Central America. Not in the States.
#8. To: buckeroo (#1)
at last they will weed out the weed
#9. To: buckeroo (#1)
(Edited)
"I am worried about my pot farm."
#10. To: misterwhite, buckeroo (#9)
Or, pass a federal law making marijuana legal. Either way.
#11. To: buckeroo (#1)
I am worried about my pot farm. What can I do to save my crops?
#12. To: Tooconservative (#10)
"But would Trump want to burn so much political capital on pursuing weed"
#13. To: Tooconservative (#10)
"If they aren't going to enforce the federal law, they need to put it on a lower federal drug schedule or just send it back to the states entirely. A move like that could, politically, pave the way for what they want to do with other programs/agencies like the abortion issue, Department of Education, ObamaCare, etc."
#14. To: misterwhite (#13)
(Edited)
But illegal recreational drugs? We tried doing that at the state level with alcohol and it didn't work. I'm sure you could make a strong legal, technical, and constitutional argument why the state should decide. And I might even agree with you.
Is this the way to run a country -- have more and more states violate federal law until the federal government just gives up? What if states did this with civil rights? Guns? Gay rights? Child labor laws? Pick an issue.
#15. To: Tooconservative (#14)
"we have reached a critical point and they can't put the pot genie back into the bottle."
#16. To: misterwhite (#15)
At that point, have arrived at the rule of man, not the rule of law.
#17. To: Stoner (#0)
“There should be no question,” Mr. Grassley said, “that he is more than qualified to be the nation’s top law enforcement officer.”
“Truth is treason in the empire of lies.” - Ron Paul
Those who most loudly denounce Fake News are typically those most aggressively disseminating it.
#18. To: misterwhite (#9)
Session's first act should be to send in the DEA and shut down every marijuana store and burn the crops. Then arrest the owners and growers and sentence them to 5 years in federal prison.
“Truth is treason in the empire of lies.” - Ron Paul
Those who most loudly denounce Fake News are typically those most aggressively disseminating it.
#19. To: Tooconservative (#16)
"No doubt that sounds noble enough but laws are enacted (and repealed and overruled) on a daily basis by men."
#20. To: buckeroo (#3)
#21. To: misterwhite (#19)
Are our drug laws being applied equally to all, or are exceptions to the rule of law being made based on the feckless decision of one man?
#22. To: misterwhite (#19)
Sessions sworn in as new AG — and presents three new EOs Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions was sworn in Thursday as the 84th attorney general of the United States as President Trump signed three executive actions aimed at bolstering law enforcement. …
#23. To: Tooconservative (#22)
"Sessions has 3 bigger priorities than pot, at least for now."
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