Make no mistake: Sessions is a terrible, awful Attorney General. He is the tip of the reactionary spear. Everything he says and does is intended to recreate a dreamscape of small town America in the 1950’s. It won’t work in the long run, but it will cause enormous pain in the trying.
Sessions does, however, have one minor redeeming quality–a sense of professional ethics. Trump has no use for that; to him, personal loyalty is all that matters. For either personal or political reasons, he can’t bring himself to fire Sessions, so he is running around making it crystal clear in public that he wants him to quit. Sessions, for his part, is either so wedded to his agenda that he can’t bring himself to bow out, or he thinks the support of the Fox News crowd will cause Trump to reconsider. As a result, he is ignoring the unprecedented rain of abuse that is coming his way.
Should we feel sorry for him? It reminds me of a test question I had to answer about “Twelfth Night” many years ago: was Malvolio treated unfairly? My response at that time was no, and I would have to say the same thing about Sessions today. He knew, or should have known, the character of his boss, but supported him anyway; he shouldn’t have misrepresented his communications with the Russians; and he can stop the abuse any time he wants.