Democrats in the Senate are putting pressure on Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to have the attorney general nomination of Loretta Lynch brought to the floor. Lynch is being kept from assuming the job formerly held by Eric Holder due to what Senator Lindsey Graham calls a “hard right Republican temper tantrum on immigration.”
Senator Pat Toomey has been critical of Lynch’s nomination due to her refusal to explain how the authority of the President is limited by the US Constitution; however, many Republicans do support her nomination, including Graham and senators Jeff Flake and Orrin Hatch. Holding up the nomination of Lynch has been seized upon by some Republicans still seething over having to back down over the issue of funding the Department of Homeland Security sans the attachments that would have blocked President Obama’s executive action on US immigration reform.
The tactic has been slammed by Graham, who says that the court is the place to argue against the president’s executive action or that Congress should finally get around to passing its own immigration reform. He said that it was “just plain wrong” to hold up Lynch’s nomination over the issue.
“The problem seems to be that Republicans remain intent on finding any outlet they can to express their frustration with the president, until they get their way on immigration,” Senator Chuck Schumer notes. “Now that that [defunding the DHS] hasn’t worked, there are reports that more and more of the hard right Republicans are directing their ire at Mrs. Lynch’s nomination. That’s not fair to Ms. Lynch, and it’s the wrong way to govern.”