Republicans reach another milestone in political malpractice
OK, it's Milbank, but it's a good piece:
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The very white, very male Republican Party has managed to get itself caught in another thicket in the hostile terrain of identity politics. Ashton Carter, Obama’s white, male nominee to be defense secretary, was confirmed in just under 70 days. But Lynch, nominated a month before Carter, continues to languish in the Senate — 130 days and counting — even though she is by all accounts superbly qualified for the job and she got through her confirmation hearings without so much as a scratch.
Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) and his fellow Senate Republicans got themselves into this situation by violating the first rule of extortion: Don’t take a hostage you aren’t willing to shoot. McConnell on Sunday said he wouldn’t take up the Lynch nomination until Democrats acted on a sex-trafficking bill that had enjoyed bipartisan support before Democrats noticed that it included an antiabortion provision. But Democrats have little political incentive to comply with his demands, because they know Lynch has the votes to be confirmed and because the GOP troubles with women and minorities worsen each day McConnell delays.
The majority leader, who failed to break a Democratic filibuster of the trafficking bill on Tuesday, tried again with another vote on Wednesday and had plans to do the whole thing again on Thursday. “It’s really hard to believe what we saw yesterday: Democrats actually filibustering a bill to help victims of modern slavery, apparently because left-wing lobbyists told them to,” he said as he opened the Senate floor Wednesday.
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But McConnell lost whatever high ground he held when he decided to hold up Lynch unless Democrats swallow the abortion provision in the sex-trafficking bill. Harry Reid (Nev.), the minority leader, protested before Wednesday’s attempt to break the Democrats’ filibuster that “Loretta Lynch has waited 130 days. There’s no reason to delay her confirmation another minute.”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/republicans-reach-another-milestone-in-political-malpractice/2015/03/18/ab797a4e-cda4-11e4-8c54-ffb5ba6f2f69_story.html