John King Should Ask Sen. Jefferson B. Sessions a Few Questions About Race (UPDATED)

UPDATE King asked Sessions no such questions and in agreed with both Leahy and Sessions that the hearings were excellent. King told Leahy and Sessions that "both of you have received wide acclaim." On what planet?

ORIGINAL POST Hey John King*. How about making some news?

We have spent the past week listening to Alabama Senator Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III condescend to Sonia Sotomayor. As Bill Maher said Friday, it was like the white male Republicans suspected the cleaning lady from their club of stealing something.

Let's hope that Judge Sotomayor is hiding an agenda to counteract the one that John Roberts hid.

Sunday, Senator Sessions is on State of the Union and John King can turn the tables. King should ask Sessions whose side he was on when George Wallace stood in the schoolhouse door. Sessions would have been 17 when this occurred. I guarantee that Sessions cannot honestly answer this question because he was then, and continues too be, a racist.

Sessions has not been questioned properly since his own unsuccessful hearings when he was nominated for a judgeship. In those hearings, witnesses testified that Sessions had called a white civil rights attorney a "disgrace to his race" and referred to the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) as "un-American" and "Communist-inspired" and that they "forced civil rights down the throats of people."

Cory Doctorow has posted an educational slide show. One of the interesting items is a Nina Totenberg script from those hearings in which she states that Sessions never denied making those statements.

On a more serious note, as Alabama Attorney General, Sessions unsuccessfully (four hour verdict) prosecuted civil rights workers for voter fraud to the exclusion of investigating whites for the same offense.

Why should Sessions get a pass after three ridiculous days of "wise Latina" nonsense?

*CNN's twitter feed seemed to say that John King was on vacation. I changed my original post from King to Wolf Blitzer, but it turned out to be King.

King adds a column that is equally superficial. I guess that is why I watch Rachel Maddow and the Daily Show, but frankly, I would rather watch Sean Hannity than this pablum.

Follow Stephen Kaus on Twitter: www.twitter.com/stephenkaus

Comments

[LizM]

Note to blogger...why do you follow CNN's twitter feed?

[Stephen Kaus - Huffpost Blogger]

Because I sent a tweet making the same point.

[LizM]

Well, I have a problem making a point in 250 words or less, as the Huffington Post requires, let alone within the constrictive confines of the Twitter field. :)

[6bd]

Fareed Zararia and Christiane Amanpour on CNN are intellects, with integrity and journalistic gravitas. Anderson Cooper does attempt to introduce investigative journalism , but the balance of the anchors are to me,...showman.

[LizM]

Fareed Zakaria and Christiane Amanpour are, indeed, the best that CNN has to offer...and, I would include Michael Ware on the very short list of the top tier.

CNN would be completely unwatchable without them. In fact, I still have a hard time associating Zakaria and Amanpour with this outfit.

[LizM]

Wolf Blitzer may be one of the best that CNN has to offer but, that doesn't mean that he will know anything about any of this, or understand its significance even if someone dropped the file in his lap, sad to say.

I think you see where I'm going with this.

[Gogetter]

Don't fool yourself into believe the Wolf and Co. don't know about this stuff. And he may very well as these kinds of question now, a day late and a dollar short. For example, last week during the Sotomayor confirmation hearing, Wolf had a segment on his show where they played a video of the first Pres. Bush suggesting that empathy was one of the qualities that made Clarence Thomas a good potential SC justice. Do you really think Wolf, his producers and the rest of CNN were unaware of this video all the weeks that the "empathy as a criteria" debate was raging prior to the confirmation hearings? The MSM was/is well aware of the ample evidence of republican hypocrisy regarding Sotomayor. They aren't idiots; they just played dumb because they didn't want to deflate the republican side of the debate. Now that the hearing is over, don't be surprised of they start asking these questions; a day late and a dollar short.

[LizM]

Oh, I won't be surprised...I guarantee it!

[michyh]

let's not hold our collective breath on this one. nice idea though. maybe if amy goodman were the interviewer or rachel maddow?

[LizM]

John King may be one of the best that CNN has to offer but, that doesn't mean that he will know anything about any of this, or understand its significance even if someone dropped the file in his lap, sad to say.