NBC News is reporting that former Attorney General and Senator Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III (R-AL) will be filing paperwork to run for his old Senatorial seat:
Former U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions intends to announce this week his bid to reclaim his old U.S. Senate seat, two sources familiar with Sessions tell NBC News.
It has been made clear to Sessions that President Donald Trump intends to campaign against him in what is currently a crowded Alabama Senate Republican primary field. Sessions must file his papers to run with the Alabama Republican Party by 5:00 p.m. on Friday night, which he has yet to do.
Assuming he does file, this should make for an interesting race. First, he has a primary to survive:
There is a litany of other Republican candidates who have already announced their bids, including former Auburn football coach Tommy Tuberville and former Alabama Supreme Court Justice Roy Moore, who lost to Doug Jones in 2017’s special election.
I suppose Moore and Tuberville should be considered Sessions’ most important opponents. But his strategy, as reported by National Review, is particularly interesting:
Sessions, a Republican, “will come out forcefully in support of [President] Trump’s agenda while denouncing Democrats’ impeachment efforts. And steps have already begun to hire campaign staff,” a person familiar with Sessions’ strategy told The Hill.
I suppose it’s simple enough to consider him to be a Republican, through and through, obedient to the ordained Party liturgy. But his strategy seems a little risky to me.
Suppose, as most political observers expect, that President Trump is impeached. Even without a conviction in a GOP-controlled Senate that has proven itself bound to President Trump, we can expect the airing of many embarrassing, even illegal episodes in Trump’s tenure.
Sessions, like all Trumpists throughout the nation, will find themselves under attack during campaigning by Democrats and even moderate Republicans for associating themselves with Trump. It’s true that there’s a difference between an ideological agenda and the moral character of the Administration attempting to apply it, but it’s also true that an ideological position can foster unethical and immoral activities by its adherents, due to the harsh requirements of that ideology. Sessions may find himself being asked if he agrees with the cruelties inflicted on the illegal immigrants at the southern border, the obstruction documented in the Mueller report, the corruption discussed during the impending impeachment and the trial, and other random bits of corruption of which we already know or suspect. Insightful rivals may even ask if his “agenda” fosters corruption and immorality in its adherents, and then let him splutter his way through a denial; followups could then highlight exactly how several facets of the ideology lead to corruption.
“Senator, do you anticipate being corrupted by your agenda’s requirements should you win the Senatorial race?”
Inflammatory? Sure. But I think it’s a valid concern and worth asking. Naturally, today’s Republican Party will take great offense, but given their recent behaviors both nationally and in some states, such as North Carolina, doth protesteth waaaaay too much.
Then add in Trump’s vow to campaign against him, which is exceedingly odd given Trump’s generally transactional nature, and although it’s certainly true that Sessions did the right thing in recusing himself from the investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 Presidential election, his high profile position in the Trump Administration will work against him with the independents. Meanwhile, Trump’s dislike for him for his “failings” will alienate all the Trump cultists, and it’s hard to say how many will refuse to be disillusioned by the impeachment process of Trump himself.
Yep, that’s a dead whale. I expect the clingers to start letting go as the rot sets in.
I suspect that nearly all the boomers who currently cling to Trump will simply dig in with all their fingers and toes, riding their whale right down into the bottom of the Marianas Trench, rather than give up on their dream of resurrecting a past where their lifestyle, concerns, investments (not financial, but relating to position in the old power structure), and privileges are paramount. Their political ideology and, in many cases, religious theology demand that the world work as it did when they were young and middle-aged, and now that the raw problems of over-population are impinging uncomfortably, they squeeze their eyes and ears shut and cry out No!, and cling to Trump as the guy who’ll return everything to how it was. It’s understandable, if not realistic.
And that could easily doom a Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III who is depending on Party discipline and personal charisma to regain his seat, because I think the Trump cultists will break that Party discipline rather than vote for a former Trump appointee who proved to be such a disappointment to their hallowed Leader. If Sessions even wins the primary – and I expect Moore to win it, with Tuberville the most likely to upset Moore – incumbent Democrat Doug Jones may well win a full term to the Senate, defeating the former seat-holder.
