As an Alabama newsman who has covered closely former Attorney General Jeff Sessions for more than 20 years, I have decidedly mixed feelings about the multiple reports that he is considering a race for his old Senate seat.

Sessions was an excellent, principled senator, and at 72 is vibrant enough to give Alabamans another productive term while bringing considerable expertise, competence, and seniority to the job. It requires no denigration of the other Republican candidates for the seat to say that, in a vacuum, Sessions would be a more immediately effective senator than they could be.