Many Democrats would like nothing better than to have the confirmation hearings for President-elect Trump’s attorney general nominee Sen. Jeff Sessions resemble the 1986 battle in which the Alabama Republican was actually rebuffed as a judicial nominee.

There are two reasons this is unlikely to happen, both of them substantially of the Democrats’ making. The first is a dearth of moderate to liberal Republicans in the Senate. The key votes against Sessions 30 years ago came from Arlen Specter (who later recanted and said he regretted his opposition) and Charles Mathias.