By Josh Moon
Alabama Political Reporter
Luther Strange definitely loved Donald Trump first, most and hardest.
But Roy Moore loved him a lot, too.
Mo Brooks wanted to love him and he definitely loves him now, has been one of the biggest supporters of the president’s agenda.
Oh, and Jeff Sessions – boy, do they ever love Jeff Sessions.
Strange made it a point to shake Sessions’ hand following the U.S. Attorney General’s testimony before Congress a few weeks back – you know, that time when Sessions forgot about meeting with Russians, forgot about talking with Russians, forgot about what was said during talks with Russians.
Anyway, Strange, Mo and Roy – the Alabama Three Stooges – they love, love, love Trump and Sessions.
Which makes for an interesting dynamic, given that Trump apparently no longer loves his AG.
In an interview with the (not-so-failing) New York Times last week, Trump was highly critical of Sessions, saying he would have never appointed him AG had he known that Sessions was planning to recuse from the Russia investigation.
Then, Monday morning, Trump blasted Sessions on Twitter, wondering why the “beleaguered A.G.” isn’t investigating Hillary Clinton’s ties to Russia.
Pro tip: When your boss calls you “beleaguered,” start polishing up the ol’ resume.
And so now, here we are with Alabama’s three frontrunners in a pathetic Senate race forced to do something that all conservatives and most Republicans struggle with mightily: navigate nuance.
Nuance is like Kryptonite to a conservative. They don’t understand it, don’t want to deal with it, hate to have to think about it.
And this thing between Trump and Sessions is definitely nuance for these candidates. I mean, can they like one without the other? What about all of those times they praised Sessions for being a good, honorable man? What if one, or both, are found to have colluded with Russia to undermine an American election?
And here’s a question for the rest of us: How did it come to this?
How did we wind up with three Senate frontrunners who wouldn’t dare bad-mouth the most unpopular president in American history or an AG who has been nothing short of an outright embarrassment?
The Trump presidency has been one long string of scams on the American people, and particularly upon the people who put him in office. He’s done nothing for any of you, and has instead spent his short time in office ensuring that the wealth of the country remains locked up tightly with people who live like him.
Admit it: He lied to you more than a Nigerian email scammer.
Hillary isn’t locked up. Health care reform wasn’t easy (and it turns out the black guy probably landed on the only real solution). ISIS isn’t dead. Mexico isn’t paying for a wall. Tax reform hasn’t even been discussed. And we still haven’t seen those tax returns.
In the meantime, he has found time to roll back regulations on hundreds of businesses and gut the EPA’s power to protect our waterways and air. Oh, and he’s tried his damndest to hand out a massive tax break to the wealthy by doing two things he promised he wouldn’t in health care reform – cut social security and Medicaid.
He’s also stocked his cabinet with billionaires, including several from Goldman Sachs – the firm that the right lambasted Hillary Clinton for cozying up to – and spent more time playing golf than professional golfers.
Then there’s Sessions – the guy leading the Department of Justice on a Sherman-like march back in time, torching all evidence of progress and advancement along the way.
For the love of God, the man wants to throttle up the war on drugs again – because that’s been ultra-successful – and has rolled back rules against the use of federal forfeiture laws that make it OK for local police forces to seize property from even those not convicted of a crime – because, hey, it’s mostly black people we’re taking stuff from, so who cares.
Sessions has also gutted the Civil Rights Division at DOJ and ended a number of federal investigations into city police departments, cementing himself as the country’s biggest self-denying racist.
Yet, somehow, cozying up to these two is still a plus in Alabama.
And the only real pleasure any of us might ever take from it all is watching this group of candidates try to justify their nuance to a group of voters that they’ve conditioned to believe that such a concept doesn’t exist.
