Twenty-three years ago, Sen. Arlen Specter, then a Republican, voted against Alabama prosecutor Jeff Sessions' nomination to the federal judiciary.
Sessions lost that bid - a rare defeat at the time for President Ronald Reagan - and Tuesday, Specter said his vote was a mistake. He was one of two Republicans to oppose Sessions.
Sessions was chosen Tuesday by fellow Republicans to replace Specter, who has become a Democrat, as top Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee.
"I voted 10,000 times. I don't expect everybody to agree with all my votes," Specter said Tuesday. "I don't agree with all my votes."
And, he said, "my vote against Senator Sessions for a federal judgeship was a mistake. I have found him to be an egalitarian." When Sessions was turned down, many senators objected to his statements questioning the civil rights movement, statements Sessions said misrepresented his view.
He ran for the Senate in 1996 and has been since re-elected twice.
What else can you say about the guy who created the "Magic Bullet" idea for the Kennedy assignation.
Posted by: Steve | May 08, 2009 at 09:49 AM
My dad told me session was one of the biggest racist of the time, is why he didn't get the judge/court possition. Although, people do change,session continued for many year after to put colored folk down(as he called them). This is not the man who you want to head any commitee that gets to make decisions on picking what kind of judge this country needs!
Posted by: alberta treadway | May 05, 2009 at 05:27 PM