It’s been more than 130 days since President Barack Obama nominated Loretta Lynch to replace U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder. Although Ms. Lynch is superbly qualified, she needs the support of four Republican senators to become the next attorney general. She can probably garner those votes, but the challenge is to wait for a floor vote in the Senate to confirm her. So what’s the problem?
Politicians love the word “clean.” There’s “clean sweep,” “clean break,” “clean start.” Since taking control of the U.S. Senate, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., has shown he loves every one of those phrases except the one that is increasingly necessary: a “clean bill.”
A “clean bill” has become McConnell’s stumbling block to proving Republicans can take charge and end gridlock. By infusing abortion politics into what was a bipartisan bill, McConnell has created a multi-car pileup so huge that even Republican senators despair anything can get done.
Republican Sen. Mark Kirk of Illinois told the Capitol Hill newspaper Roll Call, “My wish is that we hadn’t junked that bill up with abortion politics.” Kirk added that the Republicans should act “as a governing party, always keep bills focused on their main purpose, not link them to the hot social issues of our time.”
But McConnell has now taken hostage the confirmation of Loretta Lynch ”“ unless the Democrats agree to vote for an anti-abortion amendment that was slipped into a bill on human trafficking.
Democrats appear to have the better argument on a last-minute addition, since they were unanimously agreeing to the passage of the bill prior to its discovery.
“I had hoped to turn to (Lynch) next week,” McConnell told CNN. “But if we can’t finish the trafficking bill, she will be put off again. (Democrats) need to come to grips with this.” The provision McConnell wants, according to a spokesman for Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, “dramatically” extends the scope of the current anti-abortion provisions in the Hyde Amendment, as well as making them permanent.
McConnell said that Lynch’s confirmation was also being held up because of the president’s executive orders on immigration reform. So the delay is for spite as well as a legislative bait and switch.
McConnell isn’t even attempting a pretense that his stalling of Lynch’s nomination has anything to do with her qualifications, which are sterling. Instead, it’s about immigration and abortion politics and Republicans having their way by force.
The Senate Judiciary Committee confirmed Lynch in a 12-8 vote on Feb. 26. Three Republicans voted for her. One, Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah, stated, “The case against her nomination … essentially ignores her professional career, and focuses solely on (her testimony). I do not believe that is a proper way to evaluate any nominee’s fitness for any position.”
Yes, Lynch testified that she is in favor of the president’s executive action on immigration policy to protect 4 million immigrants here illegally and issue work permits. But that shouldn’t be a surprise. It would be more of a surprise if a president’s nominee openly disagreed with him on a policy matter.
Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., the ranking Judiciary member, noted McConnell had allowed a vote on four executive nominations during the debate on the abortion rider, so the argument that the abortion amendment must be taken care of first rings “hollow.”
The chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus, Rep. G.K. Butterfield, D-N.C., told reporters, “If McConnell would put this (nomination) on the Senate floor today … she’d be attorney general by the time the sun set this afternoon.”
Sherrilyn Ifill, president of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, makes the vital point that there are human rights and national security issues that “require the leadership of the attorney general to set the course and move the process forward.”
The National Security Division of Justice has multiple investigations and prosecution of al-Qaeda and domestic terrorists underway. Charges were brought this week against a Russian spy ring in New York City. Plans to capture or kill Jihadi John of ISIS are being formulated.
By holding up a nomination to such a critical federal agency, we are playing the old game of chicken. Which side will back down and who will do it first?
There’s no reason to use our national security to force upon the country one’s hyperpartisan and hardline views on the federal budget or immigration or abortion rights. This kind of gamesmanship and posturing, especially on the part of those with presidential ambitions, is self-destructive to our nation’s strength and security.
It’s time Sen. McConnell schedule a vote. And it’s time the Senate confirm Loretta Lynch.
— Donna Brazile is a senior Democratic strategist, a political commentator and contributor to CNN and ABC News, and a contributing columnist to Ms. Magazine and O, the Oprah Magazine.)
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