Over the weekend, the notoriously anti-immigrant Senator from Alabama, Jefferson Beauregard Sessions (R), appeared on ABC’s “This Week” to assert his role as the leading opponent of the Senate bipartisan reform bill. As Think Progress noted, the main thrust of Sessions’ economic claim wasn’t even true – and was debunked by conservative columnist George Will (who urged Sessions to focus on “the facts”).
Today, Sessions took another tack, which was as inane and ridiculous. Sessions is upset because this week’s immigration reform legislation means he has to work on Friday and Monday:
The Senate Judiciary Committee has scheduled hearings Friday and Monday on the bill, which is hundreds of pages long. Opponents of a deal have denounced portions of the plan, and some senators are expected to offer a flurry of amendments designed to upset the fragile balance of the agreement. Similar tactics helped doom the 2007 effort.
“This is legislation that rivals in impact the health-care legislation,” Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.), a leading critic of the reform effort, said in an interview Monday. “It needs careful scrutiny. Having a hearing Friday and Monday when most members of the Senate aren’t even here is proof that they desire no real public airing on the issues. That’s very unacceptable.”
Oh, the injustice! Senator Sessions has to work two extra days on a legislation that has the support of 84% of the American people. And he’s a US Senator who makes $174,000 a year, who receives health benefits and a pension, who has an estimated net worth between $2.7 million and $10.8 million. Sounds pretty acceptable to us.
Over the weekend, Sessions claimed to be a champion of low-wage workers (even though he apparently doesn’t like it when they move up to higher-wage jobs). Unlike them, he’s well-paid (by taxpayers), but apparently doesn’t see the need to work hard.But really, that’s ok with us.
Sessions is going to be the Senate mouth-piece for his long-time friends at NumbersUSA, FAIR and the Center for Immigration Studies. If Sessions isn’t into working on Fridays or Mondays–or Tuesdays, or Wednesdays, or Thursdays–we imagine we could find a way to cope.
