| Lynch |
Around 170 days ago I stood in a living room in California
when I was told that Eric Holder, the first black man to be confirmed as
Attorney General would be stepping down amid scandals that have rocked his
tenure, including being held in contempt of congress. His replacement, as
appointed by President Barak Obama, would be the first black woman to be
nominated, Loretta Lynch. She has a history of being an able prosecutor and
being tough on human traffickers.
So one would think that Lynch, who is from New York, would be
any easy sell to Democrats, especially since their own President confirmed her.
But it was nearly 170 days, in one of the longest confirmation battles for an
Attorney General Confirmation in history, before, when driving in a car across Iowa, yesterday, I finally heard she had gotten a yes vote.
The food fight has been vicious, with Senator Dick Durbin
saying that Republicans were treating her like Rosa Parks, prompting FOX News
pundits to literally scream on air “shame on you!” Durbin said Republicans were asking Lynch to go to the back of the bus.
But while the Democrats complained constantly, the
Republicans said again and again and again that they were willing to give this
woman her vote on the floor of the senate. But they wanted a very small
concession-that money from a fund created on a human trafficking bill would not
be used to promote the immoral act of abortion.
But the Democrats were tenacious in holding on to the right
of government to pay for abortions. And so they refused to let it happen, and
Lynch has been stuck in limbo all of this time, simply because Harry Reid, a
man whose only distinction in the senate is being one of the worst members in
history of a body which once held Preston Brooks (who broke a cane over another senator's head) and the men who started the
civil war would prefer to complain rather than do what real leaders call
governing, a part of which is making deals.
The deal has finally been made, and we at last have our first
African American woman as attorney general. Those Americans that are glad to
see Eric Holder go, and a woman who by all indicators will be a major
improvement on Holder’s mess he called the Department of Justice come, can thank
Harry Reid, Democrat and minority leader, for finally telling Lynch she can come to the
front of the bus, because it was their fault she was held back, and no one else's.
No comments:
Post a Comment