Can't wait till the next them the GOP or RNC call asking for dontations. I'm gonna raise my personal bar on profanity use...Way to Go Utah, South Carolina and Arizona....
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Lynch clears committee with three GOP votes
By Seung Min Kim
2/26/15 11:50 AM EST
Loretta Lynch cleared a key vote in the Senate Judiciary Committee Thursday in her bid to become the nation’s next attorney general, picking up support from three Republicans on the panel in favor of her confirmation.
The vote was 12-8.[b]The three Republicans who backed her nomination, along with all committee Democrats, were Orrin Hatch of Utah, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Jeff Flake of Arizona.
[color:#FF0000]The next battle is on the Senate floor, where the federal prosecutor from Brooklyn is still expected to have enough GOP backing to be confirmed. But the controversy over President Barack Obama’s executive actions on immigration have overshadowed her nomination – particularly after her confirmation hearing last month, where she testified that those unilateral moves are legal.
Most GOP senators on the committee stressed that they could not support someone to be the nation’s chief law enforcement official who believes that the executive actions – which Republicans uniformly oppose and say are unconstitutional – are legal.
“Ms. Lynch pledged to support executive amnesty … but it just doesn’t stop at that,” said Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), citing a range of issues from drone strikes to the Internal Revenue Service. “She has told us her views. Those views are radical. Those views undermine the rule of law.”
The committee’s chairman, Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), announced Thursday that he would oppose Lynch because he believes she would not be sufficiently independent from Obama and the administration’s policies.
“I remain unconvinced she will lead the [Department of Justice] in a different direction,” he said. “Now, I’m confident that if she had demonstrated a little more independence from the president, she would’ve garnered a lot of support today.”
Democrats, meanwhile, have long demanded that the controversy over Obama’s executive actions – which could stop deportations for more than 4 million immigrants here illegally and grant them work permits – stay out of the attorney general battle.
“Loretta Lynch, a supremely qualified nominee for a vital national security and law enforcement post, should never have been pulled into the fray” over immigration, Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said.
Those sweeping executive actions have been blocked by a federal judge in Texas. In a letter this week, Lynch told Flake, Hatch and Graham that she would abide by the current injunction on Obama’s executive actions “unless and until” they are lifted, Flake said.
Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) invoked the issue of race and gender in regard to the nomination of Lynch, who would be the first black female attorney general if confirmed. He noted that near the 50th anniversary of the march in Selma, Ala., it was “fundamentally unfair” to reject Lynch because she agrees with Obama’s immigration policies.
That drew the ire of Republicans. Hatch, who has said for weeks that he would support Lynch, said Democrats’ insinuation of a so-called double standard on her nomination was an “offensive and patently false innuendo.”
Democrats have become impatient over the slow pace of Lynch’s nomination through the GOP-controlled Senate, noting that as of Thursday, her nomination has been pending for 110 days. However, Senate Democrats added to the time lag by pushing her confirmation to the new Congress instead of taking it up in the lame-duck session at the end of last year.
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Lynch clears committee with three GOP votes
By Seung Min Kim
2/26/15 11:50 AM EST
Loretta Lynch cleared a key vote in the Senate Judiciary Committee Thursday in her bid to become the nation’s next attorney general, picking up support from three Republicans on the panel in favor of her confirmation.
The vote was 12-8.[b]The three Republicans who backed her nomination, along with all committee Democrats, were Orrin Hatch of Utah, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Jeff Flake of Arizona.
[color:#FF0000]The next battle is on the Senate floor, where the federal prosecutor from Brooklyn is still expected to have enough GOP backing to be confirmed. But the controversy over President Barack Obama’s executive actions on immigration have overshadowed her nomination – particularly after her confirmation hearing last month, where she testified that those unilateral moves are legal.
Most GOP senators on the committee stressed that they could not support someone to be the nation’s chief law enforcement official who believes that the executive actions – which Republicans uniformly oppose and say are unconstitutional – are legal.
“Ms. Lynch pledged to support executive amnesty … but it just doesn’t stop at that,” said Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), citing a range of issues from drone strikes to the Internal Revenue Service. “She has told us her views. Those views are radical. Those views undermine the rule of law.”
The committee’s chairman, Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), announced Thursday that he would oppose Lynch because he believes she would not be sufficiently independent from Obama and the administration’s policies.
“I remain unconvinced she will lead the [Department of Justice] in a different direction,” he said. “Now, I’m confident that if she had demonstrated a little more independence from the president, she would’ve garnered a lot of support today.”
Democrats, meanwhile, have long demanded that the controversy over Obama’s executive actions – which could stop deportations for more than 4 million immigrants here illegally and grant them work permits – stay out of the attorney general battle.
“Loretta Lynch, a supremely qualified nominee for a vital national security and law enforcement post, should never have been pulled into the fray” over immigration, Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said.
Those sweeping executive actions have been blocked by a federal judge in Texas. In a letter this week, Lynch told Flake, Hatch and Graham that she would abide by the current injunction on Obama’s executive actions “unless and until” they are lifted, Flake said.
Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) invoked the issue of race and gender in regard to the nomination of Lynch, who would be the first black female attorney general if confirmed. He noted that near the 50th anniversary of the march in Selma, Ala., it was “fundamentally unfair” to reject Lynch because she agrees with Obama’s immigration policies.
That drew the ire of Republicans. Hatch, who has said for weeks that he would support Lynch, said Democrats’ insinuation of a so-called double standard on her nomination was an “offensive and patently false innuendo.”
Democrats have become impatient over the slow pace of Lynch’s nomination through the GOP-controlled Senate, noting that as of Thursday, her nomination has been pending for 110 days. However, Senate Democrats added to the time lag by pushing her confirmation to the new Congress instead of taking it up in the lame-duck session at the end of last year.