Chuck Grassley's 'astounding display of duplicity' on Loretta Lynch nomination

Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) just made himself Exhibit A for why you can never trust a Republican. When Eric Holder announced his resignation prior to last year's election, the White House and Senate Democrats considered pushing through his replacement in the lame-duck session following the election, before they knew for certain that Republicans would be taking over. Here's what Chuck Grassley, who would take over the Judiciary Committee in charge of nomination hearings, said.

"Rather than rush a nominee through the Senate in a lame-duck session, I hope the president will now take his time to nominate a qualified individual who can start fresh relationships with Congress so that we can solve the problems facing our country,” said Sen. Chuck Grassley (Iowa), ranking Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Democrats decided against it, having a number of other priorities they wanted to focus on including the huge backlog of judicial nominees. They also were attempting to play nice, to give Grassley what he was asking for. That was in part because you had Grassley saying nice things about Lynch and how he would proceed with her nomination.

This is what you get for playing nice with Republicans. Here's Grassley this week, on just that topic:

"They could have done Loretta Lynch, and now they are complaining about not getting that done."

Yep, the White House is right. Grassley blaming Democrats for the delay in Lynch's confirmation (which has been pushed back at least one more week) is "an astounding display of duplicity."