The attack on Jeff Sessions is part of the new McCarthyism

[Commentary] Here is what Attorney General Jeff Sessions should have said when he stepped up to the podium and addressed reporters last week at the Justice Department: “At long last, have you left no sense of decency?” Sessions is the victim of the type of McCarthyite character assassination that the left used to condemn. Remember when accusing people without evidence of coordinating with the Kremlin was frowned upon? No longer, apparently.

In fact, what Sessions faced may be worse than McCarthyism. At least McCarthy was right when he claimed that there were Russian spies in the State Department (see Hiss, Alger, among others). On “Meet the Press” this weekend, former Obama director of national intelligence James R. Clapper Jr. declared that the US intelligence community he headed until a few weeks ago had found “no evidence” of any collusion between members of the Trump campaign and Russian intelligence. No evidence.

[Thiessen is a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, and the former chief speechwriter for President George W. Bush]