Over the past few days, there has been a lot of inside baseball talk of who might replace Specter as the Ranking Republican on the Judiciary Committee. Well the talk has led to Paul Kane of the Washington Post stating that Jeff Beauregard Sessions having the inside track.
Here's the twist - Sessions was denied the chance to become a Federal Judge in 1986 because he was seen as having a racially insensitive attitude.
Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.), whose early career ambition was not elected politics. A federal prosecutor in Alabama, Sessions was nominated in 1986 by Ronald Reagan to be a U.S. District Court judge, but Sessions was accused of having a racially insensitive attitude.
Specter also opposed Sessions, whose nomination was dealt a final blow when his home-state senator, the late Howell Hefflin (D-Ala.), turned against him. A decade later Sessions exacted his revenge on Hefflin when he won his Senate seat in 1996 and then got appointed to the Judiciary Committee.
Oh and here's the fun part, there is talk that an African-American Alabama Federal Judge named Myron Thompson's name is being thrown around for the U.S. Supreme Court vacancy
His name was listed on Slate.com's list of 20 possible replacements for David Souter.
Here's his inside track - Congressman Artur Davis of Alabama clerked for Judge Thompson. Congressman Davis and Obama went to law school together and Davis was one of the first House members to actively openly support Obama in his Presidential bid. Still a long shot, but wouldn't it be something if Sessions was participating in his confirmation hearing.
Sessions has a history of insensitive racial remarks including calling the NAACP and ACLU "un-American" and "communist inspired". He called the voting rights act an "intrusive piece of legislation" and while he ultimately voted to extend the 1965 act he was against it well before he was for it.
Here's more
It got worse. Another damaging witness--a black former assistant U.S. Attorney in Alabama named Thomas Figures--testified that, during a 1981 murder investigation involving the Ku Klux Klan, Sessions was heard by several colleagues commenting that he "used to think they [the Klan] were OK" until he found out some of them were "pot smokers." Sessions claimed the comment was clearly said in jest. Figures didn't see it that way. Sessions, he said, had called him "boy" and, after overhearing him chastise a secretary, warned him to "be careful what you say to white folks."
side note - Figures brother was Alabama State Senator Michael Figures (first African American Pro Tem of Alabama State Senate) - the late husband of 2008 Senate Candidate Vivian Davis Figures who ran against Sessions
He also said that he thought the KKK was okay until he learned that they smoked pot.
Okay so it's not a done deal, but it looks to be headed that way that Sessions will be the Ranking Republican on the Judiciary Committe.
Well there is talk that the Republicans are maybe not that pleased with the idea of Sessions taking over for Specter. Some mentioned that Perhaps Sen. Grassley of Iowa is a potential replacement although he is ranking member of the Finance Committee.
Sessions is a much more ideological conservative than Specter, but he is not considered as sharp a questioner as the Pennsylvanian. That's part of the reason why there are some murmurs among GOP staff that maybe one of the more veteran Republicans on the committee would instead take over as ranking member.
Here's what Sessions had to say after getting his spot on the Judiciary Committee
"There's life after non-confirmation," Sessions told Roll Call in January 2001, during another heated confirmation battle, John Ashcroft's ascension to attorney general. "It's amazing to be back here, on this committee. It amazes me. There's no place I'd rather be."
So maybe the Republicans realize he's not the sharpest tool in their shed or maybe we will get to relive history.