Amnesty’s Worst Enemy: How Senator Jeff Sessions helped stop comprehensive immigration reform

National Review ^ | 08/06/2014 | Eliana Johnson

[SeekAndFind]

A Masters of the Universe drawing hangs in a frame above the desk in the Capitol Hill office of Alabama senator Jeff Sessions. It stands out among dozens of pictures of his three children and seven grandchildren. The protagonist of the comic-book series, He-Man, is depicted mounted atop his heroic lion, Battle Cat. His muscles are bulging; his sword is thrust into the air. Battle Cat’s mouth is open, his fangs exposed. They are a formidable pair.

A small gold plaque sits below the drawing in the same frame. Etched on it are a portion of the remarks Sessions delivered on the Senate floor in June 2007, two days before the comprehensive immigration-reform bill championed by President George W. Bush and several prominent Republicans was defeated in the Senate.

Sessions led the opposition to that bill, and his efforts were among the reasons for its unexpected collapse. “No one small group of people have a right to meet in secret with special-interest groups and write an immigration bill and ram it down the throat of this Senate,” he told his colleagues. “I oppose it. It is not right.”

The artwork was a gift from Cindy Hayden, Sessions’s former chief counsel on the Senate Judiciary Committee, after the 2007 bill was defeated. Sessions called the “small group” that had hashed out the legislation — the politicians, political strategists, and special-interest groups — the “masters of the universe.”

It’s one of his favorite political put-downs. He refers to the CEOs and corporate interests that support amnesty for illegal immigrants as the “masters of the universe in glass towers and suites.” Politicians like John McCain and Lindsey Graham, who have repeatedly tried to push a path to citizenship through Congress, are the “Washington masters of the universe.”

[virgil283]

Good stuff SaF.

I don't think Mr Sessions wants to be president, maybe we should draft him ??????

[Girlene]

In April, the duo exasperated Democrats again when Vitter wrote, and Sessions raised on the Senate floor, an amendment to a resolution honoring the late Latino union organizer Cesar Chavez: Vitter noted Chavez’s support for a “secure Southern border” and “enforcement of our immigration laws.” That put New Jersey’s Robert Menendez, who had introduced the resolution, in an awkward position as he objected to the amendment.

Hadn't heard about this little tidbit. lol. Sessions (and Vitter) is a true patriot.

[Vigilanteman]

The man has a stellar resume and the character to go with it. He would make a GREAT POTUS.

But the chances of him surviving the lowest common denominator, celebrity, dog and pony, monkey show and clown contest that the presidential election has become are slim to none.

For starters, he's too damn polite.

[LS]

Sessions has been excellent. But Obama’s illegal overreach has done more than anything to kill immigration reform. If he had not had these kids coming in, I think something would have passed.

[Organic Panic]