The Republicans'
irrational war over President Obama's immigration policies is claiming a victim beyond all those essential Homeland Security employees who are going to have to work without pay when Republicans shut the department down. It's potentially derailing President Obama's Attorney General nominee, Loretta Lynch. While Republicans initially
were generally positive in reaction to her nomination, now it seems that
she's become a proxy in what's become some kind of litmus test for the GOP. She needs four Republican votes to get out of committee, and it's not clear now where they'll come from.
Sen. Orrin Hatch (Utah) is the only Republican so far who has signaled his intention to vote for Lynch, though several others have spoken favorably about her.
But many Republicans are expressing concerns about Lynch's stance on immigration and what they suggest is a lack of “independence" from the White House.
"What we’re trying to do is get an indication from her of the independence that she’s going to have from the White House," Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) told The Hill.
"I think [Attorney General Eric] Holder is running the Justice Department like a wing of the White House," he added. "That's not right, and I want her to show us that she can be independent."
The goalposts have moved from Lynch
proving she's not
a witch Eric Holder to Lynch declaring that she thinks Obama is breaking the law with his executive actions on immigration. It's nothing to do with Lynch's qualifications for the post. In fact, and this should be pretty embarrassing for Republicans, Sen. David Vitter is the only one questioning her record in New York. He wants answers on why she didn't pursue criminal charges against HSBC in a money laundering case, which actually seems like a pretty good question on the surface. Yes, David Vitter. I'm kind of shocked, too.
For the rest of the crowd, it's exactly what Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) said about her confirmation hearings: "a sound bite factory for Fox News and conspiracy theorists everywhere." The end game here, just like with the DHS shutdown threat, isn't entirely clear. Holder is going to stay in office until he's replaced, and they hate Holder with a seething passion. So they're forcing him to stick around so they have to keep dealing with him?