Loretta Lynchs gift to gridlock
We were delighted when President Obama picked Loretta Lynch to succeed Eric Holder as the next attorney general.
In part its because her nomination offers Democrats and Republicans alike the opportunity to prove their commitment to both civility and the confirmation process.
In her time as the US attorney for New Yorks Eastern District, Lynch has won a number of high-profile corruption cases including that of former state Sen. Pedro Espada Jr. and Assemblyman William Boyland without grandstanding.
Her appointment comes at a time when newly ascendant Republicans and just-defeated Democrats are bitterly divided.
If there is any hope for a better working environment for his last two years in office, President Obama needs to make clear Lynchs confirmation hearings will occur in the incoming Republican Senate majority, not the outgoing, lame-duck Democratic one.
As former Senate Judiciary Committee chairman Orrin Hatch noted, No one has been nominated and confirmed to be attorney general in a lame-duck session since before the Civil War.
Republicans, too, need to show respect for the process. Given the importance of the attorney general, and a Holder record that included a finding of contempt, GOP senators have every right to get Lynch on the record on what she thinks of Holders record on issues from the Fast and Furious gun-running to the IRS Tea Party harassment.
Were confident Loretta Lynch can hold her own. And if the process is honest and open, her appointment could mean not only a new and better attorney general for America but a less poisonous Washington.
More here:
Loretta Lynchs gift to gridlock