Sessions ends the terrible suspense

The nation's long wait is over. I see that the chief Republican inquisitor in the Sonia Sotomayor confirmation hearing, Sen. Jeff Sessions of Alabama, has come out and said he won't vote for the first Hispanic nominee for the Supreme Court.

Well, there's a surprise. You could knock me over with a feather.

Come to think of it, though, this announcement is welcome. It has broken the intolerable suspense.

After all, if he had actually decided to vote for her, putting aside his own racial baggage in the process, that would have been real news: Trumpets would have sounded, the sky would have been full of a heavenly chorus and the graves would have given up their dead - and this would have been inconvenient for a lot of us.

As it is the world remains on its foundations, solid and predictable.

A note now to some of the faithful readers of the blog:

To Little Minx: There are worse things than being called an absolutist. You are still No. 1 in the minx category of those who react to the column. Keep minxing.

To Titan Lee: I applaud your scholarship in collecting pithy quotes of mine. And let me just say, because none better is available to say so, what a fountain of truth they are. Why, I think many people standing in the middle of the road would agree with many of those statements - the only ones who would disagree would be those standing off on the grassy verge.

But what's your point? That I am not even-handed? Did I say that I was? I call 'em as I see 'em, but of course every columnist occupies a different place behind the plate - Jack Kelly does it his way, I do it mine. So the world turns, matey, so the world turns.