Quote of the Day: Senator Jeff Sessions Wants to Do This Crack-Cocaine Thing

It was a mostly unremarkable day in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee. 

Despite a few contentious exchanges between Sonia Sotomayor and Republican senators, the overall theme of the day was one of resignation on the part of the minority party.  Sotomayor's confirmation is all but assured, and all the Republicans could do was repeat their main points around abortion, Ricci and Heller over and over until their allotted time ran out.

Later on, though, when the panels came out, things got a bit more interesting.  The second panel of the day included Frank Ricci and Ben Vargas, two of the firefighters from the Ricci disparate impact case, who testified about their hardships as a result of the case, so everyone was paying attention to what the senators said and did.
Jeff Sessions (R - AL) is probably wishing that they weren't.  When his turn to address the panel came up, Sessions spoke to Wade Henderson and told him that he had been talking to Chairman Patrick Leahy (D - VT) and that "we're going to do this crack-cocaine thing that we talked about."

Sessions aides immediately rushed out the door with wrinkled twenty dollar bills in their hands . . . no, actually Amy Klobuchar (D - MN) asked Sessions to change his statements, which he did:  "We're gonna reduce the burden of crack cocaine cases and make them fair."

Henderson had previously testified before the Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime and Drugs about crack-versus-powder-cocaine sentencing disparities.

See Also:
Sessions : We're Gonna Do This Crack Cocaine Thing (The Atlantic)
Sessions '' crack cocaine' comment cracks up crowd (SF Chronicle)