As the Loretta Lynch nomination to be attorney general
continues to rack up obstruction records the vote count is very tight. As in
bring in Vice President Joe Biden tight.
Just days before her nomination as attorney general goes to the Senate floor, Loretta Lynch is stubbornly stuck right around 50 votes—suggesting a confirmation fight the Obama administration once seemed certain to win with relative ease will go down to the wire. […]
Several Republican senators who could have been potential "yes" votes are signaling ahead of the confirmation vote that that they will instead vote against her. The overwhelming bloc of opposition from Republicans stems from President Barack Obama's executive actions on immigration, and Lynch's confirmation is also plagued with remnants of congressional Republicans' toxic relations with current attorney general Eric Holder.
She has the votes of Republicans Orrin Hatch (UT), Jeff Flake (AZ), Lindsey Graham (SC) and Susan Collins (ME). Several Republicans are holding their fingers to the political wind: Shelley Moore Capito (WV), Rob Portman (OH), Kelly Ayotte (NH), Lamar Alexander and Bob Corker (TN) and Mark Kirk (IL). All of them are probably secretly hoping that at least one of the others will be the "yes" vote to put her over, so they don't have to. But that would be particularly true of Ayotte and Kirk, up for re-election in 2016. On the one hand, being in swing states and voting to block a key Obama nominee won't be easy. On the other hand, voting "with the president" could cause big problems with the base, feeding potential primary challenges.
They've collectively made their points by dragging this nomination out to ridiculous lengths: they are really, really mad at President Obama over immigration and they think Eric Holder is icky. But the only way they get rid of Holder—who they hate nearly as much as Obama—is to finally take this vote and confirm her. That should happen next week, if the latest Republican shenanigans with the human trafficking bill don't eat up all of next week.