Immigration Hardliners Holding up AG Confirmation?
As news reports would have it, Senate Democrats are pressuring Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) to bring the attorney general nomination of Loretta Lynch to the floor, with Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) telling reporters that a “hard right Republican temper tantrum on immigration” was keeping her from assuming Eric Holder’s job.
Three GOP Senators including Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) backed Lynch during last week’s Senate Judiciary Committee vote. Sens. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) and Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) also voted for Lynch at the Judiciary Committee level.
Not all Republicans are as excited, though. Republicans who backed away from using the Department of Homeland Security appropriations bill to defund President Obama’s immigration orders have seen holding up the Lynch nomination as a plan B.
KJ