Sen. Flake’s next battle with Donald Trump
If you are a regular reader of The Republic, you saw the full-page ad in a recent edition that ripped Senator Jeff Flake for his alleged silence when President-elect Trump appointed Steve Bannon as his chief White House strategist. Complete with a photoshopped picture of Bannon next to a worried-looking Flake, the ad says “Flake did nothing.”
Well, two things. One is this: It is hilariously wrong to criticize the one senator who consistently opposed everything candidate Trump stood for and did. And the senator no doubt is now in the crosshairs of the thin-skinned Trump.
Second, no senator can do anything about White House appointments by Trump, given those don’t require confirmation.
But there is one Trump selection that Flake can affect. The appointment of Sen. Jeff Sessions as our nation’s attorney general.
Sessions has a history of dubious, to be generous, behavior toward blacks. Now, some of that behavior is 30 years or more ago. And people change, as former Klan Grand Dragon Bob Byrd, a Democratic senator, shows.
But Sessions has more recent disqualifying actions.
As Alabama attorney general in the ’90s, Sessions argued for separate but unequal in Alabama public schools, more than 40 years after Education.
As reported in the the New York Times, a lawsuit was filed against Alabama for the way it funded its schools. Wealthier districts had twice as much funding as the poorest. Many schools had no science facilities. Half of the schools had no air-conditioning. And the poorest schools couldn’t fund programs for students with special needs.
Thirty districts sued and won their case. Then-Attorney General Sessions led the fight against the districts and pursued an appeal for three years, using that time to attack the judge in the original case. Finally, in 1997, the Alabama Supreme Court ruled in favor of the districts, despite Sessions’ dogged efforts Brown vs. Board of to maintain a separate and unequal system.
But Sessions’ questionable behavior isn’t confined to blacks. His most recent controversy also disqualifies him for office.
During the Trump-as-sexual-predator moment, Sessions sat for an interview with conservative magazine The Weekly Standard. He was asked if a man grabbing a woman’s genitals constitutes sexual assault.
“Would you characterize the behavior described in the video as sexual assault?” he was asked. His reply? “I don’t characterize that as sexual assault. I think that is a stretch.”
In January, the Senate Judiciary Committee will hold hearings on the nomination of Jeff Sessions to be our next attorney general. And guess who’s on that committee? Our own Jeff Flake.
It is clear from his actions as Alabama Attorney General and his theory on what does not constitute sexual assault that Sessions should never be the chief law enforcer of the United States.
Equally clear, Senator Flake should use the same strong, courageous voice he used against Donald Trump to fight that appointment.
Mike McClellan is a Gilbert resident and a retired Mesa Public Schools teacher. Email him at mmcclellan3141@msn.com.