And Still She Persisted, Too

My biggest takeaway from the Jeff Sessions Peek-a-Boo Show is not that he conveniently answered questions defending himself but wouldn't talk about his conversations with Trump.  And not that he was invoking some mystical version of Executive Privilege in advance despite not being allowed to invoke Executive Privilege on his own.  And not that he somehow didn't remember meeting the Russian Ambassador.  And not that, even though Trump said the FBI was in turmoil and Comey was a "nut job, and Sessions as Attorney General oversaw the FBI, Sessions never once even mentioned this turmoil to Comey before he was fired. And not that, even though he's Attorney General and on national security committees, Sessions had never had a meeting about Russia's attempt to affect the presidential election nor be briefed about it.  Nor seemingly showed any curiosity.  

No, for me, the biggest takeaway was that once again, Republicans at the hearing had a hard time with a black woman asking questions.  Yes, Kamala Harris asked difficult, unrelenting questions.  But then, a) she's a former Attorney General of California, b) she's a former prosecutor, and c) that's her job on the committee.

But there's committee chair Richard Burr (R-NC) once again, for the second time, gaveling her down as John McCain (R-AZ) again admonished her against being so hard on the little ol' Attorney General, not letting him answer -- when her point was that he wasn't answering, but obfuscating and replying to something other than what she was asking.  And there's Attorney General Jeff Sessions, saying how nervous he was getting.

Okay, in fairness, I can understand Jeff Sessions being really nervous when a strong black woman is interrogating me.  For that matter, I wouldn't be surprised if his life flashed before his eyes.

And I suppose with John McCain it's not all that surprising either given his dealings with Barack Obama, and we should just be grateful that he didn't refer to Sen. Harris as "That Other One."

Still, though, this is really creepy stuff.  And as deeply critical as the Russia investigation is, it's no small thing when you have a major political party with such a clear problem with women and blacks, and other minorities, as well.  And let us not forget Mitch McConnell (R-KY), the Republican Senate Majority Leader shutting down Sen. Elizabeth Warren and locking her out of the Senate debate because, "And still, she persisted."  

Oh, and that debate was over whether the new Attorney General should be Jeff Sessions.

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