Elisberg Industries
  • Home
  • Blog
  • Products
    • Books
    • Movies
  • About Elisberg Industries
    • Our Corporate Board
    • Information Overstock
    • Elisberg Industries Entertainment Information
    • Elisberg Statistical Center of American Research
    • Consultancy Service
  • Contact
    • How to Find Us
  • Kudos
  • Good Things to Know
    • The BOB Page
    • Sites You Might Actually Like
Decent Quality Since 1847

Giving new Meaning to Getting Lynched

3/23/2015

0 Comments

 
I was pleased to see that President Obama has finally spoken out bluntly about the incredibly-long delay to confirm his nominee for Attorney General, Loretta Lynch.  While I understand his reasons for staying outside the fray, not wanting ti impose himself in the Senate debate, at a certain point you have to act.  And "a certain point" in this case is 135 days...with no end in sight.  "You don't hold attorney general nominees hostage for other issues," the President said. "This is our top law enforcement office."

To be clear, the delay has had nothing to do with the qualifications of Ms. Lynch, who cleared her nomination hearings smoothly and was approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee with a bipartisan vote of 12-8.  She's been widely acknowledged as being highly qualified for the cabinet post, and without any attachment of personal controversy.  The problem is that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) has refused to bring her name to the Senate floor for a vote.

The current issue that has kept Judge Lynch held "hostage" is that the GOP has a attached a rider about abortion to a human trafficking bill, and refuses to vote on her until that bill passes.  This follows an earlier attempt by Republicans to withhold the vote by attaching an amendment against President Obama's Executive Order on illegal immigrants.  Neither issue of which has anything to do with her qualifications.  But the GOP can't even decide on what they want to keep blocking her over.  The Senate has the right, of course, to approve nominees.  But it has long been the standard of the Senate that a president of either party has the right to put together the Administration he wants, absence some sort of malfeasance by the nominee or lack of qualifications -- none of which not one person in the Senate has even hinted at.

For the sake of perspective, the delay in confirmation is longer than the time taken to confirm the last seven Attorney Generals combined.  It's the longest delay to confirm an Attorney General since Edwin Meese 30 years ago, but that was because of a five-month investigation into charges of federal misconduct, which in turn required two separate hearings by the Judiciary Committee.

There's a special irony about all this delay that almost makes it humorous.  Bordering on lunatic.  For the past six years, Republicans have been blunt about their guttural hatred of Attorney General Eric Holder.  More than almost anything (other than repealing the Affordable Care Act...), they've wanted him out of office.  And six months ago -- on Sept. 25, 2014 -- they got their wish, when Mr. Holder announced his resignation.  However, at the time, he said he would stay in office until his replacement was confirmed.  In other words, the GOP could have had their wish and been "rid" of Mr. Holder almost half a year ago.  But because of their refusal to vote on Loretta Lynch -- a person who both parties admire, and acknowledge is hugely qualified, indeed one of the most qualified nominees for Attorney General in recent years, if not ever, Republicans have created a situation for themselves whereby they have forced Eric Holder, who they hate, back on themselves.  For half a year, with no end in sight.

The dicey additional issue related to all this is the one related to race, since Loretta Lynch would be the first African-American woman to be Attorney General if confirmed.  When Senate Minority Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL) brought the subject up the other week, Republicans as always complained,   And Democrats themselves have been wary of making the charge outright, reticent to take focus off Judge Lynch and her high qualifications.  The difficulty with this conundrum is that there is no reason to hold Loretta Lynch hostage on the basis of her qualifications.  And if Republicans say it's only about trying to move the president on these other issues (which is irresponsible and shameful of them to do on its own merits, since their job here is solely to confirm or deny a nominee on that person's qualifications), those same "issues' could have been applied to Ash Carter, President Obama's nominee for Secretary of Defense.  He was nominated long after Ms. Lynch was, and was confirmed almost two months ago.  The whole process from nomination to confirmation for Mr. Carter was just two months.  And during it all, there wasn't a whisper of holding up his nomination because of a vote on abortion.  He sailed through.

So, maybe this has nothing about race.  But Republicans must know how horrific it looks.  Clearly, though, they don't care.  Which speaks volumes all on its own.

When Republicans won a majority in both the Senate and House, they proudly proclaimed that they would show how smoothly they would run the Congress.  Not only has their time in control been more bumpy than Mr. Toad's Wild Ride, they can't even get themselves in order to simply vote on a nominee -- and one no less who they consider well-qualified.

As the Party of No, being in the minority was a great place to be, an ideal spot for squawking.  You're not in charge, you have no responsibility to lead or govern.  But now they're in the majority and seemingly terrified to act, flopping around like a flounder on dry land.  As the old admonition goes -- Be careful what you wish for, you just might get it.

We've seen for the last few years how Republicans have wanted to deny the vote to others.  Who'd have thought they'd do the same to themselves in the Senate.
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Picture
    Picture
    Elisberg Industries gets a commission if you click here before shopping on Amazon.
    Picture
    Follow @relisberg

    Author

    Robert J. Elisberg is a political commentator, screenwriter, novelist, tech writer and also some other things that I just tend to keep forgetting. 

    Elisberg is a two-time recipient of the Lucille Ball Award for comedy screenwriting. He's written for film, TV, the stage, and two best-selling novels, is a regular columnist for the Writers Guild of America and was for
    the Huffington Post.  Among his other writing, he has a long-time column on technology (which he sometimes understands), and co-wrote a book on world travel.  As a lyricist, he is a member of ASCAP, and has contributed to numerous publications.



    Picture
           Feedspot Badge of Honor

    Archives

    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013

    Categories

    All
    Animals
    Audio
    Audio Land
    Books
    Business
    Chicago
    Consumer Product
    Education
    Email Interview
    Entertainment
    Environment
    Fine Art
    Food
    From The Management
    Health
    History
    Huffery
    Humor
    International
    Internet
    Journalism
    Law
    Los Angeles
    Media
    Morning News Round Up
    Movies
    Music
    Musical
    Personal
    Photograph
    Piano Puzzler
    Politics
    Popular Culture
    Profiles
    Quote Of The Day
    Radio
    Religion
    Restaurants
    Science
    Sports
    Technology
    Tech Tip
    Theater
    The Writers Workbench
    Tidbits
    Travel
    Tv
    Twitter
    Video
    Videology
    Well Worth Reading
    Words-o-wisdom
    Writing

    RSS Feed

© Copyright Robert J. Elisberg 2023
Contact Us    About EI    Chicago Cubs
  • Home
  • Blog
  • Products
    • Books
    • Movies
  • About Elisberg Industries
    • Our Corporate Board
    • Information Overstock
    • Elisberg Industries Entertainment Information
    • Elisberg Statistical Center of American Research
    • Consultancy Service
  • Contact
    • How to Find Us
  • Kudos
  • Good Things to Know
    • The BOB Page
    • Sites You Might Actually Like