This week, Democrat Senator Cory Booker made history by testifying against his Republican colleague, Jeff Sessions. The first senator to ever testify against a fellow senator, Booker used Sessions’ hearing to boost his own national name recognition.
Booker, of course, painted his testimony as a courageous act of selflessness.
“I believe, like perhaps all of my colleagues, that in the choice between standing with Senate norms or standing up for what my conscience tells me is best for our country, I will always choose conscience and country,” Booker said at the hearing Wednesday.
The senator claimed that Sessions was unfit to lead the Department of Justice due to his record on civil rights.
“Senator Sessions has not demonstrated a commitment to a central requisite of the job — to aggressively pursue the congressional mandate of civil rights, equal rights and justice for all of our citizens,” Booker said.
Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas blasted Booker on Facebook, saying he was “disappointed” that the New Jersey senator had “chosen to start his 2020 presidential campaign by testifying against Senator Sessions.”
If the political calculations on display here weren’t obvious enough, Booker made it clearer on Wednesday when he offered nothing new to the Senate Judiciary Committee. When Booker added his name to the roster, some expected he might shed new light on Sessions’ record on civil rights and racial issues. Instead, the New Jersey senator simply recited the public record and spent the rest of the time justifying his own heroic decision to speak out against Sessions’ nomination.
Booker and many others in the Democratic Party are using Sessions’ hearing as an assault on conservatism, not on Sessions himself. The “sticking” points in these hearings have less to do with Sessions’ experience and character and more to do with liberal disdain for anyone who disagrees with their agenda. Because Sessions does not celebrate Black Lives Matter and politically-motivated investigations into metropolitan police departments, he’s obviously a dangerous racist who must be kept far away from the DOJ.
In some ways, Sessions as Attorney General will be one of the most important elements of turning back the Obama legacy. For eight years, this administration has used the Department of Justice as a blunt weapon in the war on conservatism. With Sessions in control, we can begin enforcing the rule of law – even if self-absorbed liberals like Barack Obama and Cory Booker don’t like it.
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