Loretta Lynch
On Thursday, the Senate will vote to confirm Ash Carter as defense secretary, a normal process of the Senate that serves to point out that something abnormal is happening in the nomination of Loretta Lynch as attorney general. Or more to the point,
nothing is happening.
Democrats are now increasingly slamming the Republicans’ handling of President Barack Obama's nominee for attorney general, complaining that the veteran federal prosecutor's confirmation is being slow-walked by Republicans. Their evidence: The Senate Judiciary Committee could clear Lynch's nomination as early as Thursday, two weeks after her confirmation hearing ended. But that vote will almost certainly be delayed until the end of this month—which means she won't get a final floor vote until March. […]
Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) noted that Lynch has waited longer for a vote than any attorney general nominee in three decades. He urged Republicans to confirm Lynch, currently the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York, before next week's congressional recess—a request that will go unheeded. […]
Under the committee’s rules, any senator can ask for business, such as consideration of a nominee, to be held over for one week — a practice that doesn’t have to be deployed but has become routine. Lynch is officially on the agenda for Thursday, but Republicans have already said she’ll be held over, which means a vote will be delayed until after the recess. So the next opportunity for a committee vote will be Feb. 26.
Of the past five attorney general nominations taken up by the Judiciary Committee, only that of Alberto Gonzales was held over, according to Democrats.
Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-IA) says he doesn't know how he'll vote on Lynch. He says she "needs to show me and a lot of other members that she’s going to be a different attorney general than Holder" despite the fact that her confirmation hearing was devoted almost entirely to
whether or not she was Eric Holder. So Grassley has sent her 81 multi-part questions, expecting she'll give 81 multi-part answers demonstrating that she is indeed not Eric Holder.
Who she most definitely is not is Alberto Gonzales, for whom there were many damned good reasons for opposing, like the fact that he was "the prime legal architect for the policy of torture adopted by the Bush Administration." That Gonzales ended up being confirmed and not filibustered is a black mark on Democrats. That Republicans are treating Lynch as Democrats treated Gonzales reiterates just what a sham of a governing party they are.