The mark of the truly bad politician is being disliked on both sides of the political spectrum.

By that standard, Attorney General Jeff Sessions is among the worst in recent years.

His stance on asset forfeiture is an example. Both liberals and conservatives objected loudly when Sessions recently announced he wanted to restore "equitable sharing," a scheme that permits the feds to cooperate with local cops in confiscating property from people who have not been convicted of any crime.

Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, a hero to conservatives, has written that asset forfeiture "has led to egregious and well-chronicled abuses."

When Thomas noted that the typical victims are either minorities or poor - or both - I doubt there are a lot of liberals who would disagree with him.

Among the attorney general's most prominent critics on the issue was a former Republican colleague in the Senate, Rand Paul of Kentucky.

After Paul criticized Sessions on asset forfeiture, he went on to criticize him on a far more vital issue: The AG's decision to recuse himself on the Russia matter. Paul said Sessions should have "been stronger" and said "I'm going to do my job and I'm not recusing myself."

A lot of other Republicans believe that, including the one who matters most. On Monday, President Trump tweeted out that Sessions is "beleaguered."

(On Tuesday, Trump followed up with another Tweet on Sessions.)

He certainly is - by Trump himself. The president remains furious that Sessions recused himself on the Russia issue, clearing the way for a special counsel to be named.

Whatever you think about the issue itself, it's hard to disagree that Sessions was thoroughly outsmarted by Sen. Al Franken of Minnesota during his confirmation hearings.

In a hearing on Jan. 10, Franken quizzed Sessions on allegations that the Russians might have negative information they could use to blackmail Trump.

Sessions said he was unable to comment. He then volunteered "I did not have communications with the Russians" - even though Franken had not asked whether he had.

A few weeks later, the Washington Post reported that Sessions had had a couple of contacts with the Russian ambassador over the past year. Franken promptly cranked out a news release stating "It's clearer than ever now that the attorney general cannot, in good faith, oversee an investigation at the Department of Justice and the FBI of the Trump-Russia connection, and he must recuse himself immediately."

Recuse himself he did. The president's top lawyer had been outmaneuvered by a former "Saturday Night Live" comedian.

No wonder the former reality-TV star in the White House wants to say "You're fired!" to Sessions. But why did he nominate him in the first place?

I discussed this Monday with another New Jersey politician who served on the transition team, Jeff Bell. Bell, who lives in Leonia, ran unsuccessfully for the U.S. Senate in 2014 race against Cory Booker and in 1978 against Bill Bradley. He lost both times, but he had a pioneering role in the Reagan Revolution, particularly in the area of tax policy.

His expertise in that area got him a role as adviser to the transition on matters related to Treasury. That gave him a front-row seat for the fight that Christie lost to Vice President Mike Pence over control of the transition three days after the election.

Pence won the fight, but that meant he had to put together a new transition team from scratch. And that meant throwing out a lot of good work that Christie's top operative, former Assemblyman Rich Bagger, had done, Bell said.

"I think the Christie team was very thoroughly prepared," he said. "They had talked to people who had done it before in the Romney and Bush campaigns and they had a lot of good people identified."

Sessions' former chief of staff, Rick Dearborn, replaced Bagger. The transition did not go well.

Perhaps the biggest failure came a week later when Sessions was nominated for AG by Trump, before any of his critics had much chance to weigh in on the nomination.

Prior presidents, from Democrats like John F. Kennedy to Republicans like Ronald Reagan, chose attorney generals who were either relatives or close friends, said Bell.

Sessions was not up to the task, he said.

"Recusal is enabling this thing to be turned into the Napoleonic Wars," he said.

Napoleon lost those wars. Looking back, Christie would have made a better general for The Donald, said Bell.

"The situation called for some very, very tough guy who was used to getting attacked and could fight through it," said Bell.

Christie might have made a better choice, said Bell.

Who knows? He still may.

ADD - THIS LAWYER NEEDED A LAWYER: One of the main things lawyers tell clients is that when testifying you shouldn't answer a question that wasn't asked. Here's the transcript of that exchange between Sessions and Franken. Note that Franken never asked Sessions whether he personally had contact with the Russians. He asked what he would do in the event "anyone affiliated with the Trump campaign communicated with the Russian government."

A smart lawyer would have said, "We'll cross that bridge when we come to it."

Sessions jumped off the bridge.

FRANKEN: Quote: "Russian operatives claim to have compromising personal and financial information about Mr. Trump."

These documents also allegedly stated -- quote -- "There was a continuing exchange of information during the campaign between Trump surrogates and intermediaries for the Russian government."

Now, again, I'm telling you this as it's coming out, so, you know -- but if it's true, it's obviously extremely serious. And if there is any evidence that anyone affiliated with the Trump campaign communicated with the Russian government in the course of this campaign, what will you do?

SESSIONS: Senator Franken, I'm not aware of any of those activities.

I have been called a surrogate at a time or two in that campaign, and I did not have communications with the Russians. And I'm unable to comment on it.