The Senate vote to confirm Loretta Lynch, Barack Obama’s nominee to replace controversial Attorney General Eric Holder, has been delayed–and Democrats have decided to play the race card.
Sen. Dick Durbin (D, Ill.) compared the voting delay to Rosa Parks, saying that Lynch, “the first African-American woman to be nominated to be attorney general, is [being] asked to sit in the back of the bus when it comes to the Senate calendar. This is unfair, it’s unjust. This woman deserves fairness.”
And Rep. G.K. Butterfield (D, NC), who is the head of the Congressional Black Caucus, took the race card a step further, saying: “Never ever did we expect that it would take four months in order to get this done. So then, one must wonder, what are the reasons? I think race certainly can be considered as a major factor in the reason for this delay…”
Lynch was nominated on November 8, 2014, when Democrats were still in control of the U.S. Senate–and could have easily confirmed Lynch in the two months before the new Republican majority took office. Lynch attracted a good deal of bipartisan support as a qualified candidate, making her confirmation as the next Attorney General likely.
Despite this, Democrats are adamant about making Lynch’s delayed confirmation a plank in their so-called “War on Women,” as well as using it to paint Republicans as anti-minority.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has gone on the record saying the delay of Lynch’s confirmation in order to force Democrats to vote on a bill to combat human trafficking–which was recently derailed when Democrats discovered anti-abortion language.
Republicans, like Sen. John Cornyn (R, Tex.) has praised that strategy, saying, “I’m grateful to the majority leader… for saying we’re going to come back and vote again and again and again on this human trafficking bill until it passes. And he’s not going to schedule the nomination confirmation vote on the next attorney general until such time as we get this passed.”
It’s sad that Democrats have to resort to playing the race card and the gender card every time the Republicans play political hardball.
