I’m a NoVa resident and today called Sen. Mark Warner’s office to find out whether he is a “Yes”, “No” or “Undecided” on Jeff Sessions. The person who answered the call said that the Senator had not yet indicated his decision, to which I said, “Well, that means he’s Undecided”. She made a distinction between her not knowing (and his website not saying) and “Undecided”; I let her know my skepticism about the distinction.
I then asked her for a moment to allow me to make a case against him. I made the point that as a Virginia Democrat my franchise is diluted at the levels of both Congress (9 Republican districts to 4 Democratic) and the State Legislature. I stressed that Sessions is a direct threat to my right to the franchise, no less than a voter who lacks a photo id or one whose registration is targeted by race and tossed out.
I told the phone person that Sessions has been in Congress for three decades and we’re not going to find out anything new in the next few days or couple weeks and that it would be better if Warner got ahead of this and just stated his opposition NOW. I allowed that Warner would probably do the right thing and vote “NO” in the end, but it would show real commitment to filibuster Sessions who will be directly attacking the franchise of Virginia Democrats once Republicans eventually win the governorship.
While quite polite the whole time, I firmly reiterated that Warner was “Undecided” and that, in principle, it means he is open to the prospect of Sessions as Attorney General. Not good enough. I told her I’d be posting an account of our transcript on every Democratic blog I could find, such as dailykos.
I just signed up now with dailykos and am posting for the first time.
Contact his office at (202)224-2023 and tell him to do something. It’s dismaying that Republicans are winning supermajorities on any of these nominees.