Well, well, well, this is interesting. From the moment the New York Times exclusive interview with President Numbnuts (R-Clueless) broke yesterday, Jeff Sessions demise was assured. Rachel Maddow opined that we may already be on a resignation watch, that a public dressing down was an open invitation and expectation for a resignation letter. Meteor Blades wrote an excellent diary about Jeff Sessions lack of self respect in failing to have already submitted his resignation. But I have a couple of, as usual, disjointed thoughts about what we have just witnessed.
First of all, of course Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III has no dignity or self respect, he has spent more than 10 minutes in a room with Hair Twitler. Any question of the possibility of Sessions having any positive sense of self awareness were resolutely resolved the first time that Sessions put that stupid Make America Great Again hat on. More than once. Slogans are for bumper stickers and stage banners, not for wearing apparel. I don’t ever recall Richard Nixon appearing in public clad in a white t-shirt with “I am not a crook” emblazoned across the front. A man with a shred of self respect does not help someone else fleece the sheep in a cheap marketing scam.
There are two things that Jeff Sessions has demonstrated to me in the last 24 hours. First, he’s the smartest one in the room. Trump’s constant and irrational mental pendulum swings are the stuff of legend. He’s like the weather in Chicago, you don’t like it? Wait fifteen minutes. Any interview with Hair Furor is an exercise in free association. It’s like asking a psychiatric patient what the ink blots look like, you never know what’s going to pop out. Sessions is gambling that His Lowness has already forgotten what he said to the NYT yesterday, and I think he’s right. Besides, in this time of turncoats, where is Trumpkopf going to find a replacement as loyal and compliant as Sessions?
The second thing I learned, or rather had confirmed by Sessions actions is something I have suspected for days now. Trump has lost the respect of his own party. There is no doubt about it, in any other administration Trump’s words would be an unspoken demand for resignation, and such resignation would have come within hours. The fact that Sessions not only did not immediately submit his resignation, he waited almost 18 hours before even giving a public response shows his disdain for Trump. Whether or not Sessions has any little golden nuggets of protection that he can use as garlic to Trump’s vampire is unclear, but one thing is sure. Trump put himself into his spot, and now he has to put up or shut up. If he doesn’t fire Sessions in the next 24 hours, he sends a clear and incontrovertible signal; that no one in the administration really has to listen to him or go to the mattresses for Trump anymore. He’ll huff, and he’ll puff, and then he’ll find something else to rant about as a distraction for his neutered state. I can pretty well guarantee you that Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell have already put this away in the back of their minds for future use.
The funny thing is, Trump has no one but himself to blame. He surrounded himself with a bunch of characters with the morals of a clutter of alley cats, and then he wonders why he can’t take them out in public without people pointing at him and laughing. Add to that his obnoxious public manner in treating his advisors and subordinates, toss on a generous dash of the stench of scandal and weakness, and who the hell wants to work for him? Firing someone like Sessions will be incredibly difficult for Trump, not only because of the difficulty of finding a replacement, but also because of the certain unpleasantness of the grilling that any such nominee wold get in most likely to be televised committee hearings and floor debate. Questions that Trump would certainly like to have never see the light of day again.
From where I’m sitting, Trump was misread. He was not directly calling for Sessions; resignation, shit, Sessions made clear a few weeks ago that he had offered to tender his resignation, and Trump did not accept it. Trump was being Trump, the Russia investigation was pissing him off, and Sessions just happened to be the one who first came to mind, so he riffed it as he went along. Sessions has been with Trump for almost a year now, I think he correctly sniffed the winds, kept his head low, and waited for the tempest to pass over. And considering the fact that MSNBC is talking about OJ Simpson instead of Session’s resignation or firing, he was right. Self respect be damned, it’s a job.