Great job in pulling this stuff down, Brian and the whole gang!

You continue to make Josh's site, especially for those of us who really appreciate this genre, the very best on the web.

Salut!

No, this is actually very depressing.

After being turned down by the U.S. Senate for a judgeship, this guy was elected to federal office. We're still dealing with states in this union with a majority of the people willing to trample on the rights of entire groups of citizens. It's beyond BS. I consider myself more for bipartisanship than most liberals, but I get so hot under the collar from crap like this, I could just spit fire.

When does our turn come?! When do we get to actually reclaim the American Dream, instead of having it spoonfed to us in bits and pieces??!

Until Bush, I felt like we were all Americans. Some regional differences, sure, and that's the spice of life. With Bush, though, and all his bible-thumping Talibangelicals, I felt a resurrection of a Civil War mentality. This stuff about Crawford was telegraphing that you're good if you're from some regional Southern city or still better off if just nearby one, and you're bad if you're from the North or some city. They hated New Yorkers completely; how Bush got a bullhorn in his hand and traveled up there just shows how traumatized everybody was.

Eight years of come-to-Jesus obscurantism, and the Republicans in cities and in the North had had enough. They became independents or Dems (or they're now marginalized because so many of the rest fled). They are mostly believers, but not in creation "science." They're interested in limited government, a strong defense, a good business environment, and affordable taxes. Not in having the most draconian anti-abortion laws possible, crazy and fruitless wars, Sarah-Palin-for-President, or faith-based initiatives (or as someone here said, magic-based initiatives either). Those things play better in Southern and rural communities, and among the less urbanized and educated there as well, I have to say. So those people are the base now, and they look a lot like the Confederacy, which after all existed when the education level was a whole lot lower than what you'd find in say, Atlanta, today. And they resemble the Confederates in other ways, too.

Such as not viewing civil rights as particularly important considerations. And in that, the party provides a previously unavailable ready haven for hardcore racists from every part of the country. There has thus emerged anew coalition of backwardness, and many from that group will *love* having bigoted fellow-traveler Sessions dog whistling with them from a powerful position on the Hill.