FOURTH INTERRUPTION: Protesters Removed During Jeff Sessions Confirmation Hearing
Quinton Ross, the Alabama State Senator (D-26th District), was still at Pontiac (Mich.) North High School when Jeff Sessions last sat on the national hot seat.
It was 1986, and the then-Alabama state attorney general was being grilled--skewered, ultimately--over his nomination by President Reagan for a federal judgeship, an effort that ultimately failed due largely to numerous now-widely known racially charged accusations about Sessions" words and actions in office.
As Sessions, now a U.S. Senator, takes that very torrid seat once again today, this time, 30 years later, as President-elect Trump"s most controversial cabinet nominee, Ross, who is African-American, has a decidedly different perspective--as someone who has navigated their myriad differences to work with Sessions politically.
And let"s be clear, as a politician, Ross looks to continue to leverage his relationship with Sessions, should the 70-year-old Alabamian become the United States Attorney General.
Before that occurs, if it occurs, Sessions must sit before the Senate Judiciary committee and withstand a barrage of questions, even from his friendly Senatorial comrades, about his part and his potential intentions as the nation"s highest law enforcement officer.
Ross is well aware that those same racial accusations ago will linger over Capitol Hill like a thick, morning haze.
Will Sessions" racial history be a hurdle too big to overcome?
And he knows that many--especially many African-American groups and individuals--have wielded those accusations like placards at a protest march in the last few days in an effort to derail Sessions once again.
Yet as the storm over Sessions rises, Ross is wielding his faith as Christian--he attends the Hutchinson Missionary Baptist Church in Montgomery--to counter some of the negativity.
"As a Christian, I"m always reaching over backward to forgive any individual of any past indiscretions," he says. "That is what I was taught."
Ross isn"t delusional, nor does he seem to be a Sessions apologist, regarding what the U.S. Senator may have done three decades ago.
"I can neither confirm nor deny [the accusations]," he says. "If they are something individuals feel strongly about, I have no reason to question them for talking about those things," he says. "I can only deal with an individual in terms of how they have dealt with me.
"Thirty years ago, I was not the same person I am now. I have some aches and pains now didn"t have then, so it"s clear that I"ve changed. Peoples" life experiences teach them along the way."
The Sessions protests are well underway
Ross, who was born in Mobile, but raised in michigan, and sessions, also from mobile, go back about 20 years. Ross is an educator, a former principal, so it is not surprising that their interactions have largely focused on education policy.
Not long after Ross was elected to the legislature, in 2014, Session helped him secure federal funds for Trenholm State Community College in Montgomery.
Sessions also helped Ross secure invitations to President Obama"s inauguration in 2012 for some of his constituents and, later, White House tours.
"All of our dealings have been ones of mutual respect and he"s always been helpful," Ross shared. "Is he conservative? Yes, he is. I am under no illusion that there won"t be things we don"t agree on. But at what point do we move beyond to where we can find common ground on issues important to this country."
Immigration is one of those issues. The "browning" of America is a core source of consternation for many, many Americans, such that some--including the President-elect--actually believe building a wall along the U.S. -Mexico border 1) is actually feasible idea, 2) will actually work and, 3) will actually be paid for by our neighbors to the South. When none of the above is actually true.
Nonetheless, Sessions has been a staunch opponent of legalization and many believe his expressed positions on immigration are yet another reason he should not be in a position to strip away some of the immigration advancements established by President Obama.
Ross, however, has faith that Attorney General Sessions will not act as Senator Sessions would likely--whether on immigration or LGBT rights.
When you gain a leadership position it puts you at a point where you have to govern, and govern for all," Ross says. "You have to look at issues holistically, as the current President has. We now have a clear and sensible path for citizenship in the U.S. You can"t just shake a rug and unravel things that have been put in place and offer security to individuals who"ve come to this country, worked hard and are invested in it.
"You have to take the wide view. [Immigration] is not an issue that happened overnight and it can"t be changed overnight."
Integration movement Birmingham Alabama girl pelted by fire hoses May 7, 1963. Photo by Anthony Falletta. Neg. 63-3668BANTHONY FALLETTANor should the civil rights many fought so long to secure, rights that may soon be vulnerable to a man who makes many wonder whether he will continue to utilize the resources and authority of the Justice Department to ensure that local police departments are fair and unbiased, that voting rights are not impugned, and that the prison industry doesn"t get fat and happy again on minorities and the poor.
"Through my conversations with him, in dealing with civil rights and other issues, there is the hope," Ross says. "Once [Sessions is confirmed] he has to have a dialogue with people who were for and against him. In order to find common ground, we have to have dialogue. I believe he will be fair in enforcing the law without bias or prejudice."
What AG Sessions may mean for Alabama
Ross says he last spoke with Sessions about a month ago when he congratulated him on his nomination.
"I told him I was looking forward to working with him," he says. "I expect him to be as open to me once he becomes Attorney General as he was as a United States Senator. But being Attorney General has a whole different meaning than the political bantering you do when you"re representing your state and your party in the legislative process."
We shall soon see perhaps, all too soon.
Condoleeza Rice backs the controversial nominee
Source: http://www.al.com/news/birmingham/index.ssf/2017/01/democratoc_state_senator_quint.html
