Loretta Lynch & The Senate GOP: Bringing a knife to a gunfight

Yep. Indiana Jones showed us all how foolish that strategy can be.

Democrats have, for decades, made mincemeat out of GOP nominees simply because they disagreed with them.  Clarence Thomas.  Robert Bork. Samuel Alito.  (Remember Mrs. Alito running out of the hearing room in tears during her husband’s confirmation to the Supreme Court?) lynch

They play hardball.  Our guys play softball.  Republican majorities have given overwhelming support to Clinton and Obama nominees that have helped tilt the federal judiciary significantly to the left.  Obama’s two Supreme Court nominees — both approved with significant GOP support — had highly dubious qualifications for membership on the high court.  Yet, the GOP threw down their cloaks in the mud puddle like Sir Walter Raleigh and escorted those two ladies across the finish line.

Now comes Loretta Lynch — the nominee to replace Eric Holder at the Department of Justice.  She is a sorority sister of Holder’s wife, a long time Holder family friend and adviser, and is often referred to as “Holder in a dress.”

THAT should be setting off all kinds of alarms in the GOP caucus.  Yet, we’ve only got Ted Cruz (TX), Mike Lee (UT)  and Jeff Sessions (AL) making any kind of stink about Lynch.  Lynch’s confirmation hearings have been very fluffy and softball. (Lindsey Graham has already publicly poo-pooed the efforts by Session and Cruz.)

thompointThere is a lot out there to raise red flags over.  Lynch’s leading advocate with Obama has been none other than Al Sharpton.  She’s made speeches suggesting that most cops are corrupt, and that blacks are being held down by a “prison of racism.”   She’s expressed a belief that voter ID laws are an attempt to reverse the gains won by MLK and his allies in the 1960s.

She appears to find the death penalty racist.  Lynch has defined Obama’s executive action on amnesty for illegal aliens as constitional and legal.  She’s also made statements that illegals have just as much of a right to work in the US as legal citizens do.    Lynch has been a big fan of the theory of disparate impact — suggesting that something is bad and racist just because the percentage of blacks benefiting is not as high as she would like it to be.  It doesn’t matter if there is evidence of racism. She’s used this disparate impact line to go after banks’ lending practices AND the criminal justice system. mcobama

EVERYONE is predicting smooth sailing for this nomination through the GOP-controlled Senate.  People like Lindsey Graham have clung to what they see as Lynch’s qualifications for the job.  Well, scores of sabotaged GOP nominees raked over the coals by Democrats were highly qualified for their posts.  They got shot down over ideology.  Robert Bork was immensely qualified to serve on the US Supreme Court.  What was done to Clarence Thomas was downright shameful.   I am not suggesting that the GOP needs to jump into the slime too.  Work their nominees over.  Force them to moderate their picks — just like they do to GOP presidents.

Lindsey Graham and John McCain are already swooning over Lynch.  So, Richard Burr cannot be too far behind.  I saw Thom Tillis questioning Lynch the other day during the confirmation hearings.  He focused on whether (1) she was going to keep pursuing the voter ID suit against North Carolina that names HIM as a defendant, and (2) how she will prioritize things around her office.  (Will her business card holder be on the left or the right side of the desk calendar?)  Not exactly hardball there. She basically ignored him and gave non-answers.  Thom will still voter for her, though. 

Again, explain to me the value of a GOP majority in the Senate if they are going to simply roll over and give BarryO exactly what he wants?