Posted on 04/23/2015 3:29:43 PM PDT by markomalley
When Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.) postponed the vote to confirm Loretta Lynch as attorney general in order to break the filibuster of a human trafficking bill, Sen. Dick Durbin (D., Ill.) punished him by suggesting that the delay was motivated by racism.
“Loretta Lynch, the first African-American woman nominated to be attorney general, is asked to sit in the back of the bus when it comes to the Senate calendar,” Durbin said on the Senate floor in March. McConnell didn’t flinch during the human trafficking fight, which Republicans ultimately won, but such accusations stung.
In public, Republican senators and aides say that GOP support for Lynch’s confirmation reflects the belief that the Senate has a duty to confirm a president’s cabinet nominees if they have the requisite qualifications. In private, they admit that charges of racism such as the one leveled by Durbin discouraged them from blocking her nomination entirely. As a result, Obama paid no political price for issuing executive orders on immigration that he himself had previously admitted were unconstitutional.
“It appears to be all upside for him personally and for what he wants to accomplish,” Senator Mike Lee (R., Utah) tells National Review while discussing the orders. “There is significant downside to the American people and to our legal system and to our constitutional order.”
To discourage Obama, or future presidents, from issuing such sweeping executive orders, some senators wanted Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.) to refuse to allow a vote on the floor. That proposal failed due to fear of the political backlash that Democrats would instigate by accusing Republicans of having racist motives.
“People are very nervous about Republicans not being willing to have a vote on the first black woman attorney general,” according to one GOP senator who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Republicans agree that Lynch is qualified for the job — “probably the most qualified nominee that’s come out of this White House,” concedes Senator Richard Burr (R., N.C.), who voted against her confirmation.
Nevertheless, Lynch’s exchanges with Lee (R., Utah) and Ted Cruz (R., Texas) during her confirmation hearings in January put her nomination in peril. Lynch refused to identify any hypothetical limit to Obama’s power to claim that the doctrine of prosecutorial discretion allowed him to stop enforcing certain laws; at one point, she declined to say if a future Republican president could unilaterally lower taxes by refusing to collect revenue beyond a certain tax rate.
“Senator, before I could render a legal opinion on the hypothetical as presented to me, I would want to know the entire scope of the action but also have the time to gather all of the legal precedent, the cases, congressional actions,” Lynch told Cruz.
Lee believes it should be an easy call. “In this particular position, we need to have someone who is willing to acknowledge some kind of limit to the power of the president to basically rewrite federal law,” he says.
The frustration with Lynch built in several wings of the conference. Multiple GOP sources pointed to Senator John McCain as a leading opponent of her nomination, an unexpected development given his support for the “Gang of Eight” immigration bill that conservative activists opposed in the last Congress.
The Arizona Republican had what he concedes was a “passionate” debate with Senator Orrin Hatch (R., Utah) during a conference lunch last month. Hatch — who “is very pro-deference” when it comes to the question of confirming a presidential nominee, according to a GOP Senate aide familiar with his thinking — argued that Republicans should defer to Obama because Lynch has a strong resume. When McCain emphasized repeatedly that Lynch had refused to identify a constitutional limit on the president’s authority, Senator Jeff Flake (R., Ariz.) shifted the focus away from Hatch by saying that he would also vote for Lynch.
“I’ve felt very strongly, as you know, that if she was going to support what the president was doing unconstitutionally, then I couldn’t vote for her,” says McCain. “It’s my state that’s [got] a border with Mexico, it’s my state that has these thousands of children who show up, it’s my state that has ranchers who have people go across their borders, and I have been heavily committed to immigration reform.”
When McConnell delayed Lynch’s confirmation vote until the resolution of the human trafficking debate, Republicans got a taste of the racism charges they’d hoped to avoid. Activists targeted the majority leader, in particular, for protests outside his office and over the phone.
“The perception is that her race and sex have an impact,” Representative Sheila Jackson Lee (D., Texas) told Roll Call. “Would anyone else be treated with a five-week delay, blaming it on a dispute of legislators over legislation?”
In the end, according to one GOP senate aide, Lynch’s “race and sex” did “have an impact” on her nomination, which was confirmed when ten Republicans voted with the chamber’s 44 Democrats and two independents in her favor.
“If she were white, I think it would have been more difficult to find the five votes needed to be confirmed,” the aide says.
Chicken and Waffles.
Why does he keep saying he'll "bypass" Congress?
They didn't give him his immigration amnesty, so he's decided to do it on his own.
He didn't get his climate package, so he's going to "bypass Congress" to put what he can into effect.
They're not a rubber stamp approving everything he does, but he does it anyway, even without their permission.
On the upside, at least it means Holder is out.
I hope she is not worse.
So, they played the ‘race card” on themselves?
Just because Holder wanted to leave, does not mean the senate had to rubber stamp another DOJ hack for Obama.
Republicans you should have kept Holder in place, even to the end of BO’s term. You wimps blinked.
ping
Good pic. He can barely contain his mirth for putting another one on us.
Rand Paul has signaled that he is not his father’s son because he can work with McTurtle and should have access to more republican duplicity.
picking up speed as we swirl closer to the hole in the bottom of the bowl...
Cowards and traitors!
The leader of the Vichy Republicans!
I found this on an earlier thread.
I am surprised my senator did not give in, McCain was on the right side this time.
This also includes their conservative rating.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3282405/posts
Quite the confluence. The only oddball is Ron Johnson, who McConnell has been grooming for leadership!
Johnson (WI) - 2016 - 89% (Average) - 72% (Creview) - 84% (Heritage) - 95% (CFG) - 96% (ACU) - 100% (FreedomWorks)
Flake (AZ) - 2018 - 70% (Average) - 43% (Creview) - 62% (Heritage) - 90% (CFG) - 71% (ACU) - 83% (FreedomWorks)
McConnell (KY) - 2020 - 68% (Average) - 58% (Creview) - 68% (Heritage) - 55% (CFG) - 92% (ACU) - 67% (FreedomWorks)
Portman (OH) - 2016 - 64% (Average) - 58% (Creview) - 55% (Heritage) - 77% (CFG) - 64% (ACU) - 67% (FreedomWorks)
Graham (SC) - 2020 - 58% (Average) - 51% (Creview) - 50% (Heritage) - 58% (CFG) - 68% (ACU) - 64% (FreedomWorks)
Hatch (UT) - 2018 - 57% (Average) - 58% (Creview) - 55% (Heritage) - 44% (CFG) - 75% (ACU) - 55% (FreedomWorks)
Ayotte (NH) - 2016 - 56% (Average) - 44% (Creview) - 51% (Heritage) - 60% (CFG) - 68% (ACU) - 55% (FreedomWorks)
Cochran (MS) - 2020 - 50% (Average) - 37% (Creview) - 54% (Heritage) - 44% (CFG) - 60% (ACU) - 55% (FreedomWorks)
Kirk (IL) - 2016 - 40% (Average) - 31% (Creview) - 39% (Heritage) - 36% (CFG) - 44% (ACU) - 50% (FreedomWorks)
Collins (ME) - 2020 - 26% (Average) - 12% (Creview) - 24% (Heritage) - 34% (CFG) - 28% (ACU) - 33% (FreedomWorks)
Sponsoring FReepers are contributing
$10 Each time a New Monthly Donor signs up!
Get more bang for your FR buck!
Click Here To Sign Up Now!
These “Republicans” may not be “cowards” at all, just simple traitors, or they regard their constitutents as 75 percent liberal.
This is just about the craziest response possible. When it comes to confirming anyone in the government, especially a cabinet member, but more importantly THIS cabinet member - the idea that racism has anything to do with it is NUTS! Step back and see how many blacks and other minorities are in the cabinet and other high level government positions. There is no way under the sun that opposition to her has anything to do with racism. (It’s simply opposition to HER) It’s dishonest for the opposition to even bring that up.
Whats the sense of voting anymore?
When you can hack voting machines with
password
12345
qwerty
abcde
god
you’ve got a problem;
Basically she said to Lee and Cruz... there will be NO justice at the justice dept... AND
THEY WILL be required to LIKE IT..
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.