PA Bill Number: HB335
Title: In inchoate crimes, further providing for prohibited offensive weapons.
Description: In inchoate crimes, further providing for prohibited offensive weapons. ...
Last Action: Removed from table
Last Action Date: May 1, 2024
Attorney General Nominee 'Asked to Sit in the Back of the Bus' of Senate Calendar :: 03/22/2015
It was almost inconceivable last fall, but now a highly qualified, well-respected federal prosecutor could be voted down thanks to hyper-partisan politics and grandstanding. There may be no one President Barack Obama could nominate for attorney general who would be confirmed in the final two years of his second term.
Republicans have proven, time and time again, that governing-by-obstruction is the only legislative action they are interested in. Give them an inch, and they’ll take a country mile.
Last December, Sen. Harry Reid decided to delay the confirmation of attorney general nominee Loretta Lynch presumably to give Eric Holder a few more weeks on the job. In doing so, he may have inadvertently placed the nomination in jeopardy.
The recent delay by now-Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell provided ample room for dissenting members, including Sen. Ted Cruz, to galvanize support to derail Lynch’s nomination. While at first it appeared McConnell was simply bargaining for abortion funding restrictions in an anti-human trafficking bill, the move opened the floodgates.
And now guns rights advocates have entered the fray. Organizers are circulating petitions and pushing letter-writing campaigns and phone trees urging Senate Republicans to oppose Lynch in a floor vote.
The National Rifle Association sent an alert to its members saying, “as the nation’s top law enforcement officer, Lynch would almost certainly have an impact on our Second Amendment rights.” The group plans to deliver more than 170,000 signatures to Senate offices.
“Disgraced anti-gun Attorney General Eric Holder is calling it quits,” said the petition. “But make no mistake, Obama is determined to ram through his gun-control agenda and has hand-picked Loretta Lynch.”
The nomination has been stalled more than 130 days, longer than any other nominee to the office. Lynch needs at least four Republicans to be confirmed and appears, at least at this hour, to have them.
That could change.
Democrats have not stopped fighting. “Loretta Lynch, the first African-American woman nominated to be attorney general, is asked to sit in the back of the bus when it comes to the Senate calendar,” Sen. Dick Durbin said. “That is unfair. It’s unjust.”
The truth is this fight isn’t about immigration or guns. It isn’t about who will succeed Holder or even what policies she might enact. In some respects, keeping Holder in place is a moneymaker for Republican fundraisers. Republicans have long been used Holder in a proxy fight with this president, and it has paid significant dividends. Holder is just the boogeyman they need ahead of 2016 and can deliver on the conservative narrative in ways that Lynch cannot.
But recent days have revealed an emboldened Holder, one who has even less patience for Republican histrionics. Imagine what the morning looks like if the president is forced to scuttle the Lynch nomination.
They should be careful what they pray for.
http://bluenationreview.com/democrats-fight-save-lynch-nomination-amid-gun-rights-backlash/
