Mediaboss Marketing

WASHINGTON First, Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin accused Republicans of blocking an "important civil rights milestone" when they delayed the confirmation of Loretta Lynch for attorney general.

Later, on the Senate floor, Durbin accused Republicans of making Lynch "sit in the back of the bus when it comes to the Senate calendar."

In the meantime, black leaders had dialed into a conference call to warn that Republicans were stifling not just a nominee, but a qualified, black, female nominee. In the words of the director of the NAACP's Legal Defense and Educational Fund, "African-African American women are watching, and the civil rights community is watching."

Lynch, as Democrats have taken to saying, has been delayed longer than the last five attorneys general combined. That delay has fed right into a political campaign. On Wednesday morning, Washington Sen. Patty Murray and Wisconsin Sen. Tammy Baldwin assembled (on short notice) a justice league of women's rights activists to join the identity-politicking chorus. The latest delay was spurred by the bipartisan human trafficking bill, which hit a snarl this month when Democrats (they say) belatedly discovered an anti-abortion funding provision.

Joined by leaders of the National Organization for Women, Moms Rising, and the National Women's Law Center, Murray and Baldwin attacked Republicans for holding Lynch "hostage" by waiting until the passage of the trafficking bill to give her a vote.

"Democrats are ready," insisted Murray. "We want to help survivors of trafficking, and protect women's rights, and get our nominee for attorney general confirmed."

"Having snuck in a stealth anti-abortion provision, now they are trying to cram it down the throats of people," said Terry O'Neill, the president of NOW. Lynch "would be the first African-American woman attorney general of the United States. She is qualified. No one doubts her qualifications."

As the advocates talked, around the time that National Women's Law Center co-President Marcia Greenberger called for Lynch to be confirmed "for the sake of the country, for the sake of the children, for the sake of the women," the messaging standoff in the Senate reached a new peak of absurdity. Democrats want to confirm a nominee, and they may already have the votes to do so, with four Republican senators ready to vote with them.

Republicans want to pass the trafficking bill, with the abortion provision; they also think that the Democrats are being opportunistic about a provision they must have been blind to miss. In conversations Tuesday, they were confident that the politics of "blocking a human trafficking bill" would backfire on the minority party.

But even the Democrats who were comfortable supporting the bill pinned the blame for the standoff on Republicans. "When people of greater legislative acumen than I miss it, something's up," said Pennsylvania Sen. Bob Casey, a Democrat who usually tries to cast anti-abortion votes. "Other than what I've read, I don't know how it developed."

Original post:
Democrats see new 'war on women' in human trafficking, Loretta Lynch fights