Jeff Sessions

Jeff Sessions had more than just Donald Trump against him in his bid to win back his old Senate seat. He was also facing a Republican party that has been destroyed and remade — in Alabama as elsewhere — severing old relationships and affections. Contrary to what almost all of President Trump’s critics and a great many of his supporters believe, however, the new GOP is not simply Trump’s party. It’s a party that still includes most of the old interests, only newly networked and re-routed. The party is like an ingot that’s been melted down and recast, still the same but no longer familiar. As far as voters were concerned, the same could be said of Jeff Sessions himself. Sessions was a senator for 20 years.

Joe Biden keeps getting more unconventional. It started when he delivered short speeches and one-word answers like 'yes' or 'no'. Now he and the Democrats are becoming even friskier, declaring that they want to push off their grand jamboree, the big enchilada, the Democratic National Convention in Milwaukee to August, a week before Trump holds his own shindig in Florida. Smart move on a number of fronts. For one thing, the original mid-July date simply allowed too much time to elapse between the Democratic and Republican conventions. Trump would have pummeled Biden relentlessly during those weeks. A let-down after Milwaukee would have been inevitable. Trump would have reveled in the build-up to his own convention.

Nearly 18 months after US Attorney John W. Huber was appointed to investigate whether the Obama-era FBI and Department of Justice abused their power when they obtained spy warrants on Trump campaign operatives and their handling of alleged pay-for-play Clinton Foundation schemes, there’s no sign of any activity. Members of Congress remain in the dark about what if any progress has been made, and likely witnesses say they haven’t been contacted. The Utah prosecutor, appointed by then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions hasn’t convened any grand juries, or issued any subpoenas or indictments. His office hasn’t even responded to Congressional demands for reports on its work.

George Conway, the husband of Kellyanne, is putting on warpaint. ‘President Trump’s installation of Matthew Whitaker as acting attorney general of the United States after forcing the resignation of Jeff Sessions is unconstitutional. It’s illegal. And it means that anything Mr Whitaker does, or tries to do, in that position is invalid,’ Conway together with former acting US Solicitor General Neal K. Katyal wrote today in the New York Times. Obviously, the fact that George is Kellyanne’s helpmate supplies an extra frisson to the op-ed, but the arguments that he and Katyal advance are wholly persuasive.

Like a lot of very rich and powerful men, Trump likes to have someone in the dog house. He needs a person in his orbit to take the flak; all would be well, he wants to believe, were it not for this one human irritant in his midst. For over a year, the bad doggie in Trump’s kennel has been Attorney General Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III. The Mueller inquiry causing headaches? Blame Jeff. Midterm polls not looking good? Blame Jeff. The great Trumpian revolution not going to plan? Blame you know who... https://twitter.com/realdonaldtrump/status/1036681588573130752?s=21 Trump knows that what he calls the ‘witch hunt’ — the Mueller inquiry — could still destroy his presidency, even if he and his administration are, as he insists, innocent.