Attorney General Jeff Sessions is caught between several rocks and hard places. Does he side with the independent professionals in the Justice Department, or does he bow to political pressure? Does he pull the plug, go home to Alabama, run for Senate and bail his party out of a scandal? Or does that open the door to further politicization of the rule of law?

And whatever he decides to do, will he remember it in a few months?

In a grueling session before the House Judiciary Committee on Tuesday, Sessions had trouble explaining previous contradictory statements about contacts he had to set up meetings with Russian officials last year when he was a key adviser to Donald Trump's presidential campaign.

"I have always told the truth," Sessions said of previous testimony that he knew of no contacts between the Trump campaign and Russian officials. He said the presidential campaign had been difficult and he had forgotten about attending a meeting in which an aide suggested arranging a meeting between Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin. "I had no recollection of this meeting until I saw these news reports," Sessions said."

This wasn't the only Russia-related contradiction Sessions was fuzzy on. But strangely, the biggest problem with Sessions' testimony Tuesday wasn't possible perjury. It was his refusal to rule out appointing a special counsel to look into a 2010 uranium deal and other matters that Republicans are trying to link to Hillary Clinton's tenure as secretary of state.

Trump and right-wing media have been clamoring for such an investigation. Allegations about the uranium deal have been repeatedly and thoroughly debunked, most recently by Shepard Smith of Fox News on Tuesday. Despite much hyperventilation on the subject by other Fox presenters, Smith merely followed the facts.

Sessions said he would listen to recommendations from his senior prosecutors before deciding on a special counsel. They are likely to tell him to forget it; this is the sort of thing they do in banana republics or Putin's Russia. The professionals in the Justice Department take a great deal of pride in their jobs.

"To have the winning side exploring the possibility of prosecuting the losing side in an election — it's un-American, and it's grotesque," former Republican Sen. John Danforth of St. Louis told The Washington Post. As special counsel, Danforth investigated the FBI's 1993 assault on the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas. He added, "The proliferation of special counsels in a political setting is very, very bad."

In a radio interview Nov. 2, Trump lamented, "The saddest thing is that because I'm the president of the United States, I am not supposed to be involved with the Justice Department. I am not supposed to be involved with the FBI."

The rule of law is glorious, not sad. Jeff Sessions should remember that.

REPRINTED FROM THE ST LOUIS POST DISPATCH