The words out of Jeff Sessions mouth were awful enough, but his tone was worse -- almost gleeful. As a heckler nearby with a megaphone tried to shout him down, accusing him of being racist and evil, the attorney general played the part.

Sessions insisted the Department of Justice would secure our "southwestern border." Not our borders generally, but that one specifically. You don't need the NSA to crack that code.

And then there was this.

"If you are smuggling a child then we will prosecute you, and that child will be separated from you as required by law," Sessions said at a law enforcement conference in Scottsdale, Arizona. "If you don't like that, then don't smuggle children over our border."

Already 700 children have been taken from their parents at the border this fiscal year.

It's rational for a man in his position to argue that entering this country illegally is a crime and that the law must be upheld.

But to be so flippantly cruel, to be so smug at the prospect of destroying families -- for that you have to be a monster.

And Jeff is our little monster.

Certainly, there are many in this state who agree with him, who elected him to the United States Senate and who still support him now. That's our sin to answer for when it's our turn in line at the Pearly Gates.

I'd say, forgive us, Father, for we know not what we do, but for some of us, that's not true.

Not for one in particular.

In January 2017, as Sessions prepared for his confirmation to lead the Justice Department, former Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Sue Bell Cobb wrote a letter of support for Sessions' nomination, whom she called her "friend."

In the letter, Cobb praised Sessions for his commitment to sentencing reform and his support for drug courts.

She claimed to know him well.

The thing is, Sessions had made his thoughts on both sentencing and drugs clear long before Trump nominated him to be attorney general.

As conservative and liberal leaders pushed bipartisan sentencing reforms in Washington, Sessions fought them.

"He's been the No. 1 opponent of the bipartisan effort in the Senate to reduce mandatory minimums for low-level nonviolent drug offenses," Sen. Richard Durbin told the New York Times.

When liberal and conservative states began adopting softer approaches to marijuana, Sessions attacked them, arguing that the drug was addictive and that it made people dangerous.

Sessions cited Lady Gaga as his source. No, really.

And on another issue which liberal and conservative leaders have found consensus -- civil asset forfeiture -- has fought to expand the practice, not end it. Fourth Amendment be damned.

And all that's before you get to his immigration zealotry, none of which was a secret in 2016, either.

And yet, Cobb gave him her endorsement, allowing Sessions to go before his Senate confirmation under the umbrella of "bipartisan support."

Cobb has since said she has concerns and second thoughts, but when she was asked during Reckon's Democratic gubernatorial debate to name one regret she's ever had -- any, not just Sessions -- she couldn't think of any.

It's tempting to pass her endorsement off as a misjudgment of Sessions' character. But Cobb isn't dumb.

No, this was a gambit that didn't pay off.

This was Cobb's Artur Davis moment.

Eight years ago, Artur Davis looked down the road of his political ambitions and saw an obstacle. For him it was the Affordable Care Act. By voting against it, he could prove his independent bonafides and appeal to moderate Republicans after he won the Democratic nomination for Alabama governor.

But plan backfired when Democrats rejected him, and today he can't win a race for county commission.

Cobb's Sessions endorsement was the same sort of miscalculation -- positioning herself for the general election, but alienating voters she will need to get past the primary.

And now, her chief opponent, Walt Maddox, has a useful weapon, particularly among African-American voters. Already Cobb has lost the support of the New South Coalition, where state Sen. Vivian Figures excoriated her for supporting Sessions. She won't an easy case to make next week at the Alabama Democratic Conference, either. Without the support of at least one of those organizations, there's no clear path to victory in the Democratic primary.

It's possible for Cobb to turn it around, but that would mean having to say three words that seem missing from her vocabulary.

"I was wrong."

Kyle Whitmire is the state political columnist for the Alabama Media Group.

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