AND NOW SESSIONS – AT 11:18 A.M. ET:  After a breathtakingly bitter debate, the Senate Judiciary Committee has cleared the nomination of Senator Jeff Sessions to be attorney-general.  From The Hill:

A Senate committee voted to confirm Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) to be attorney general on Wednesday, two days after the growing controversy surrounding President Trump’s travel ban on seven Muslim nations led to the firing of an acting attorney general for insubordination.

The Senate Judiciary Committee approved Sessions 11-9 along party lines. His nomination now goes to the floor, where he is widely expected to be confirmed given the GOP's 52-seat majority.

The committee vote comes as Senate Democrats have sought to slow progress on other Trump nominees, including Steve Mnuchin, the pick at the Treasury Department, and Rep. Tom Price (R-Ga.), Trump's pick to lead the Health and Human Services Department.

The Alabama senator's already difficult path to confirmation was made more contentious by Trump's firing of acting Attorney General Sally Yates, who deemed the president's order illegal and said she would not have Justice attorneys defend it.

Committee Democrats on Tuesday praised Yates for her actions and accused Sessions of helping Trump draft the order, a claim Committee Chair Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) denied.

“I’m not sure if it would be a problem even if he was involved,” he said during his opening marks. “The fact of the matter is he was not involved.”

COMMENT:  The Democrats are becoming the crazed party of lost causes.  It is perfectly clear that their kamikaze missions are being directed by the fringe left of the party, which has power far beyond their actual voting strength in the nation. 

The left was out last night picketing Chuck Schumer's apartment in Brooklyn.  Schumer, the Senate minority leader, is a favorite target.  He is not leftist enough for the nutbags.  They want him out, replaced by someone with respectable psychiatric issues, like Elizabeth Warren.  And Chuck, being passionately ambitious, is rushing to the left, acting as unhinged as he can, to show his loyalty.

I wonder what Roosevelt, Truman, and Kennedy would think of all this.  Frankly, I'm not sure they'd be Democrats today.

February 1, 2017