Sessions poor pick as Attorney General

I don’t think anyone with common sense is having a good start to their weekend with the announcement of Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL) as the incoming Trump administration’s nominee for United States Attorney General. People concerned about civil rights and/or legalized marijuana in particular may want to carve out a bit of time this weekend to do a little bit of research on the guy the Trump White House wants as our nation’s top law enforcement officer.

Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III, the junior United States Senator from Alabama and former ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, earned a law degree, served as a captain in the United States Army and United States Army Reserve, and will be 70 years of age if he should take office as Attorney General in January. In so far that I know, that has likely ended the positives on Sen. Jeff Sessions.

With the other alarming picks and potentials being floated around, chumming all sorts of mainstream media waters, this might be the first actual “oh shit” pick, even more so than Steve Bannon. Jeff Sessions is a man, that has at the very least:

• Opposed hate crime laws.
• Firmly opposed removal of the Confederate flag last year.
• Voted against lifting the ban on gays serving in the military.
• Voted in favor of a Constitutional ban on gay marriage.
• Doesn’t even favor legal immigration.
• Doesn’t think that “good people” smoke marijuana.
• Owns a poor track record of allegedly making racially insensitive remarks.

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For President-elect Donald Trump, a man that has prided himself on “surrounding himself with the best,” it has been a rocky start to say the least to that concept as applied to a White House staff, and the nomination of Jeff Sessions as Attorney General only serves to clog the Trump White House toilet further. A man who has proven so demonstrably uncomfortable with many constraints of civil rights is both laughable and troubling for a United States Senator, let alone a prospective Attorney General.

I know I have both written and Tweeted that I am willing to give President-elect Trump and his incoming administration every fair chance, and I am still willing to do so. However, given the somewhat unsettling trend the Trump White House is taking in its formative days, I’m wondering how much of a chance we are going to be given, fair or not…

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