Democrats Joe Manchin (WV), Chris Coons (DE), Bob Casey (PA), Mark Pryor (AR), Heidi Heitkamp (ND), Joe Donnelly (IN), and John Walsh (MT) voted against President Obama’s nominee to head the Civil Rights Division of the Justice Department, Debo Adegbile, because he had represented Mumia Abu-Jamal in his successful effort to avoid a death sentence.
The always reasonable Air Force lawyer, Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, had this to say about the development:
Sen. Lindsay Graham, (R-S.C.), who voted against Adegbile, said the vote was about Adegbile’s behavior, not his race. “When someone has a history of helping cop-killers, this is what happens,” Graham said in an interview.
I guess that’s true.
Man, fuck cops. How many people have been murdered by cops where the cops not only weren’t tried for murder — let alone convicted — but how many are even disciplined beyond “sensitivity training”?
Defending Mumia disqualifies you from working in the Department of Justice? Let’s make a list of conservative lawyers disqualified from public service because of who they represented? Who represents Citibank? JP Morgan Chase? Monsanto? WalMart? Koch Industries?
Chris Coons? Really? At least Kay Hagan realized who would be voting for her. The others are known profiles in courage or some sort.
I guess they are holding out for a Clarence Thomas type of Civil Rights enforcement head.
Wonder what I was doing the day they explained everybody has a constitutional right to counsel but that doesn’t make it OK for a lawyer to go represent somebody Lindsey Graham doesn’t like? I totally missed that part.
In 1770 or so, there was a case in which a group of British soldiers opened fire and killed a colonist or 2. The problem was finding a defender.
John Adams defended these soldiers in their trial in which they were accused of murder. He got them off, and he got a lot of credit for that.
This guy basically did the same thing. Since when are lawyers responsible for the client? Everyone even a scumbag is entitled, in the country called “The united states of america” to have a good defense.
Yeah, but John Adams didn’t have a funny foruner-sounding name.
It’s that fucking simple, folks.
People — especially politicians and pundits — who profess to care about “law and order” tend to care much more about order and not so much about actual law.
Methinks our Air Force lawyer needs a quick tutorial in how the civilian justice system works.
Oh, and also that constitution thingy.
Oh, Lindsay Graham knows all too well how this works, just as he feels no compunction in undermining our foreign policy with his own absolutely feckless and, imo, treasonous remarks. But, all is forgiven, because, ya know, he’s got a Tea Party primary opponent. I can barely stand to look at the guy anymore.
What happened today to Adegbile in the Senate was totally unconscionable. 7 Gutless Democratic Senators succumbed to right wing terror and evinced no spine whatsoever. I’m disgusted with them all, along with all the Republicans. As Chris Hayes pointed out, John Roberts defended a serial killer. All that Adegbile did was be part of an amicus brief disputing Mumia’s sentencing and won. This is out and out racism on the part of every single Senator who voted against Adegbile.
These events, along with others, including the idiots on the editorial pages of my newspaper, have made for a not fun day to be a liberal Democrat.
Pryor was the only Dem to vote for Roberts but against Adegbile. The rest of the six weren’t in the Senate yet when Roberts was confirmed.
The number of GOP senators to let their hypocrite flag fly, of course, is legion, and headlined by Graham himself.