Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY)
has a reminder for Republicans in light of the fact that they've ground the Senate to a halt, holding up a human trafficking bill and a critical presidential nomination for no good reason:
"Hello our Republican friends: You're in the majority—they still think they're in the minority," Sen. Charles E. Schumer said. "They're putting their own poison pills in their own bill. It's time to start governing."
Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) has a
more pointed summation of what's going on here. He says Loretta Lynch, the first black woman to be nominated attorney general "is being asked to sit at the back of the bus when it comes to the Senate calendar."
The "governing" in question for the new Senate majority is two-fold: stop poisoning legislation with unrelated provisions that are there just to make political points against Democrats, and fulfill their constitutional duty and approve—or deny—a presidential appointment. Loretta Lynch, the first black woman to be nominated as attorney general, has waited longer than any other nominee to the post in history for a vote. She has to wait longer because Mitch McConnell won't allow a vote for her until he can force Democrats to vote on abortion in a completely unrelated bill.
Schumer and Durbin aren't the only ones noticing that Republicans are failing. Editorial boards around the country are exasperated.
Head below the fold for editorials from Tulsa to Tucson and more.
- Tulsa, Oklahoma:
Gridlock is not OK. Both sides need to show leadership. Start moving forward or get out of the way.
- Tuscon, Arizona:
It was inevitable that the new Republican leaders in Congress would face a learning curve. Unfortunately, they are proving to be slow learners.
- Baylor University, Texas:
[B]eing vague and misleading about the contents and true intentions of a bill, calling it “bipartisan,” is immoral as well. Furthermore, using Lynch's confirmation as a bargaining chip to try and achieve their goals that go against the democratic process is un-American.
- Concord, New Hampshire:
Right now, Senate leader Mitch McConnell is using a human trafficking bill as the flimsiest of pretexts to delay Lynch’s confirmation. […] But these political squabbles have exactly nothing to do with the post of attorney general.
- Des Moines, Iowa:
By tabling a vote on Lynch, Republicans risk further alienation of black and Latino voters—and even more rancorous relations with Democrats, just as budget negotiations are beginning. Republicans still need to show the country that they govern. And the best way to do that is to bring Lynch's nomination to the floor, and the sooner the better.
- Boulder, Colorado:
For their part, Republicans elected to hold hostage the unrelated nomination of Ms. Lynch, the otherwise largely noncontroversial career prosecutor poised to become the first African-American woman to head the U.S. Justice Department.
As always, the perverse incentives operating in Congress mystified humans still trying to accomplish things.
Remember what McConnell said when Republicans took over in January? "When the American people elect divided government, they're not saying they don't want anything done. […] What they are saying is they want things done in the political center, things that both sides can agree on." So much for that.