First, it’s good to see Don Siegelman is posting here, about a judicial issue that does not immediately concern him, when, as they say, he’s got his own fish to fry. Good show, Don and you will be vindicated, sooner or later.

Second, a great comment heard on NPR this afternoon: The Republicans, led by Sessions of course, focused on what Sotomayor said in speeches given in various public forums.

The Democrats, led by Schumer, instead focused on her rather middle-of-the-road judicial record, i.e., her actual decisions on the bench.

Guess which group made more sense?

Confirmation seems almost for sure now, though, since even he said me might vote for her.

Wish I felt more like writing about this. An indomitable pain in the stomach…

Sessions and Grassley are just crushing sour grapes. Republicans lost control of the Senate, and the White House, last year because a majority of Americans who voted thought it was time for change. What kind of change, and how much, can be interpreted widely, but one thing is for sure: Barack Obama was elected president and is thereby entitled to nominate Supreme Court justices.

While the Constitution does not mandate that the Senate must approve a presidential nominee, it seems clear that with Democrats in the majority, both on the judiciary committee and the full Senate, Sotomayor will be confirmed. She is a talented, accomplished jurist and will be a good Supreme Court justice.

Let’s throw out those sour grapes and move on now that Sessions and Grassley have had their opportunity to stomp around on them on national television.

The grandfather of political prejudice in Alabama

At least one Republican on the Senate Judiciary is playing hard ball with President Obama’s nominations. The new Minority leader on the Senate Judiciary Committee is Alabama’s Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III. I ask ” What moral ground gives Senator Sessions the right to berate Sotomayor because she believes her background as a minority makes her even more qualified to serve on the Supreme Court”. Sessions is the man who once said “I thought the Klu Klux Klan was a pretty good group of guys until I heard they smoked pot.” Jeff Beauregard Sessions, has always been on the wrong side of Justice.

Jeff Sessions used his position as U.S. Attorney to go after Alabama Black political activists to suppress Black voter turnout. The FBI under Sessions direction rounded up Black activists, loaded them on a bus with a state trooper escort, had them finger printed, photographed and made to give a hand writing sample. Sessions put a retired school teacher, Julia Wilder, in Alabama’s only maximum security prison for women at the age of 72 because she went door to door encouraging her neighbors to vote and if they were going to be out of town, she arranged for them to get an absentee ballot!

That’s the same Jeff Sessions who is now a road block to President Obama’s choice for the U. S. Supreme Court.
Democrats and moderate Republicans must stand up to Sessions and say:

“Get out of President Obama’s way and let him fulfill his commitment of change.”

It’s time to remove the political road blocks to change.

Don Siegelman,
Governor of Alabama 1999-2003