In one week, he has expressed an opinion about the Ukrainian crisis that should have come straight out of the mouth of Dick Cheney.
Dick Coons:
On Africa: “I frankly think we’ve lost some ground in the region because our vital allies don’t believe that the United States has the will, the determination, the courage to act, after a red line was drawn, was crossed, and we didn’t act in Syria.”
Chris McCain:
On Ukraine: “I frankly think this is partly a result of our perceived weakness, because of our actions in Syria.”
Yeah, you can go fuck yourself, Senator Coons. And that is my opinion before we even get to this:
Lawyers hoping for a political appointment in the future, take note: the U.S. Senate is now judging attorneys based on their representation of politically unpopular clients.
In a move sure to rattle the legal community, a majority of senators voted Wednesday to block the confirmation of a respected civil rights lawyer to a top Justice Department spot because he helped get a convicted murderer off death row.
All Republicans and a handful of Democrats voted to sink Debo Adegbile’s nomination to lead the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. The overriding reason for their opposition was that he once represented Mumia Abu-Jamal, a death row inmate convicted 30 years ago of killing a Philadelphia police officer.
Adegbile did not make the decision to take on the case. When he became the head of the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund in 2012, the group was already representing Abu-Jamal, and Adegbile continued to do so on a narrow constitutional issue. In other words, he was just doing his job by advocating for his client.
Many Republicans likely would have voted against Adegbile anyway. But several pointed to his past representation of the “Philadelphia cop-killer” as the reason for their opposition, and it was ultimately the votes of seven Democratic senators that did his nomination in.
“Why did we lose? Why did every single Republican vote against having lawyers defend people?,” asked Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), an ardent supporter of Adegbile, who currently serves as senior counsel to Leahy’s Judiciary Committee.
Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.), who is facing reelection this year and whose state sits within the Philadelphia media market, said he thought Adegbile was well-qualified for the position, but was concerned that he would face “visceral opposition from law enforcement on his first day on the job,” citing the opposition to his nomination by several law enforcement organizations.
You, Chris Coons, are a coward. You face no opposition in your race for reelection. None. Literally. No one is stepping up to challenge you. And even if they did, and attacked you over this vote to approve this nominee, all you had to do is say that Adegbile is well qualified for the position and that his representation of Mumia was on constitutional issues after he was already convicted. And even still, are you not principled enough to stand up for the AMERICAN and CONSTITUTIONAL notion that every citizen, no matter what they are charged with, no matter their alleged crime, deserves a day in court and deserves representation by legal counsel? Are you that chickenshit to deny this basic right?
I am ashamed to have voted for you. I regret ever shaking your hand. We Delawareans desperately need to replace you in the Senate, for you do not possess the skill, principle or fortitude for the job.