New York Times
By Carl Hulse
April 17, 2015
Senate
Republicans do not want to be held responsible for rejecting the
historic nomination of Loretta E. Lynch, the first African-American
woman picked to be attorney
general. But they also are in no hurry to see her confirmed because of
her defense of President Obama’s immigration policies.
That
contradiction showed signs of being self defeating on Friday, when a
visibly emotional Mr. Obama elevated the issue at a news conference by
saying “Enough! Enough!”
about the record delay, after a call the day before from Jeb Bush, one
of the top Republican presidential prospects, to confirm Ms. Lynch.
Ms.
Lynch is nearing six months in a state of suspended Senate animation,
her nomination moving neither forward nor backward but instead becoming a
bargaining chip in
an unrelated battle, a calculation that carries no small irony given
that no Republicans have challenged her credentials, and almost all of
them had expressed their enmity for the man she would replace, Attorney
General Eric H. Holder Jr.
The
inert situation shows just how Republican anger and resentment over the
president’s immigration actions color issues ranging from Ms. Lynch’s
status to trade negotiations
to the nuclear talks with Iran. Republicans’ central rationale remains
that they cannot trust the president.
After
months of simmering over the very slow walk of Ms. Lynch’s nomination
by the new Republican majority, Democrats unloaded this week.
The
White House spokesman accused a leading Republican senator of duplicity
over the treatment of Ms. Lynch. Democrats threatened procedural
tactics that would force Republicans
to block a vote on bringing up her nomination, stirring additional
political repercussions.
So
far, though, Senate Republicans have adopted the position of their
leader, Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, that he would not bring Ms.
Lynch’s nomination for a
vote until senators had passed a human trafficking bill. That bill
contains some abortion provisions that Democrats find untenable.
Mr.
Obama on Friday called the Republican refusal to set a vote on Ms.
Lynch an “embarrassing” example of partisanship by the Republican
majority. “There are times where
the dysfunction in the Senate just goes too far,” Mr. Obama said during
a news conference with Prime Minister Matteo Renzi of Italy. “This is
an example of it. It’s gone too far. Enough! Enough! Call Loretta Lynch
for a vote. Get her confirmed. Put her in
place. Let her do her job.”
Mr.
McConnell sought to quiet the growing furor over the Lynch stalemate,
telling his colleagues the Senate would get to her next week just as he
had always planned.
“I
have indicated, gosh, at least for six weeks now, we are going to deal
with the Lynch nomination right after we finish trafficking,” Mr.
McConnell said on the floor
Thursday.
Just
the fact that Mr. McConnell, by his own admission, has been talking
about it for at least six weeks is galling to Democrats, who think she
should have been confirmed
months ago. They see the Lynch nomination as a prime case of Republican
partisan mischief and ill-treatment of woman with a distinguished
career as a prosecutor.
While
some difficulties were always expected with Ms. Lynch given the
traditional political sensitivities of the post of attorney general, no
one anticipated after her
nomination on Nov. 8 that a vote would still be pending in late April.
As
the United States attorney for the Eastern District of New York, Ms.
Lynch had a formidable reputation as a prosecutor and administrator and
had the strong backing
of law enforcement and civil rights groups. Some of the most
conservative Republicans were expected to oppose her, but her ultimate
approval never seemed in doubt.
But
at her confirmation hearing on Jan. 28, Ms. Lynch said she found it
reasonable that the Justice Department had concluded that Mr. Obama was
acting within the limits
of his power when he decided to unilaterally ease the threat of
deportation against millions of undocumented immigrants. That quickly
cost her backing among Republicans who said they could not vote for Ms.
Lynch if she was willing to side with the president
on his immigration actions.
It
is unclear what the Republicans thought she should say since she could
hardly be expected to use her confirmation hearing to denounce the
actions of the man who had
picked her for the post or assert that he had broken the law and would
be held accountable once she became the nation’s chief law enforcement
officer.
Republicans
certainly realized this. But their rush to declare opposition made it
clear that they did not want to be viewed as endorsing the president’s
immigration policy,
even through an association as tangential as voting for a nominee who
had nothing to do with shaping the policy but simply refused to condemn
it. Ms. Lynch has won public backing from five Republicans, just enough
to secure her confirmation when a vote takes
place.
Democrats
initially thought Mr. McConnell held back on scheduling a vote to
demonstrate that he was in charge and was not about to hurry things
along for the president.
As
the weeks passed with no movement, Democrats became more concerned.
Then there was the abortion-related blowup on the sex trafficking bill
and Mr. McConnell declared
he would not move forward with Ms. Lynch until that fight was resolved.
Mr.
McConnell has been clear that he would eventually allow a vote and he
most likely will at some point. He and his fellow Republicans might not
be thrilled with Ms.
Lynch, but they will almost certainly allow her to be confirmed.
With
the prospect of Hillary Rodham Clinton as the Democratic presidential
nominee next year and given the party’s struggle with minority voters,
the Senate’s new Republican
majority does not want to be remembered for killing the high-profile
nomination of a highly qualified black woman.
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