In the Loop: Eric Holder may finally be free next week
Attorney General Eric Holder has been a lame duck for nearly six months, an extraordinarily long time since he said he wanted out.
But by next weekend he might finally get his long-awaited R&R. We hear hell take a few months to chill before figuring out which board hell join and what speeches hell give.
Our colleague Mike DeBonis reports that after much delay, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Tuesday he expects to bring the confirmation of attorney general nominee Loretta Lynch to a vote sometime next week.
Lynch, who was nominated more than 120 days ago, has languished in the GOP-controlled Senate with some senators holding her nomination hostage over their opposition to President Obamas executive action on immigration. Still, when the vote finally occurs, she is expected to be confirmed easily.
Our colleague Paul Kane wrote last week about the slow-going process. He quoted Senate Judiciary Committee ranking Democrat Patrick Leahy as saying the White House and Senate Democrats should have moved faster on the nomination before the midterm elections. And after, when they lost the Senate, it was a calculation to hold off on Lynch:
According to Leahy and Schumer, Democrats faced a choice: push Lynch through, or confirm as many nominees to the federal courts as they possibly could before handing over the majority in January.
They chose the judges over Lynch, Leahy said, because federal judges receive lifetime appointments to the federal courts.
I think that was a very good trade-off, Leahy said.
Whenever the Senate does get Lynch into her Justice office, Republicans will finally be rid of Holder.
And hell finally be rid of them.
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In the Loop: Eric Holder may finally be free next week