The debate about confirming Loretta Lynch is suddenly getting partisan.

Democrats are now increasingly slamming Republicans’ handling of President Barack Obama’s nominee for attorney general, accusing them of slow-walking the veteran federal prosecutor’s confirmation. Their newest evidence: the Senate Judiciary Committee’s decision Thursday to postpone voting on Lynch until after next week’s recess — which means she won’t get a final floor vote until March, at least five weeks after her confirmation hearing.


The confirmation pace stands in especially stark contrast to how quickly the GOP-led Senate has taken up Ash Carter’s nomination for defense secretary. He first appeared before the Senate Armed Services Committee Feb. 4, was swiftly reported out of that panel earlier this week and is headed to a Thursday confirmation vote.

“There’s so many similarities between the Lynch nomination and the Carter nomination,” said Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), one of Lynch’s biggest boosters. “And to move Carter so quickly and to slow down Lynch is very troublesome, and I think they ought to move her ASAP.”

One reason for the lag on Lynch is that after Obama nominated her in November, Senate Democrats agreed to postpone her confirmation into the new Republican-led chamber at the GOP’s request. Democrats meant it as a gesture of goodwill, and they also believed Lynch would be confirmed in either a Democratic- or GOP-controlled Senate.

But now the Democratic anger is beginning to flare up.

Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) noted that Lynch has waited longer for a vote than any attorney general nominee in three decades. He urged Republicans to confirm Lynch, currently the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York, before next week’s congressional recess — a request that will go unheeded.

And Vermont Sen. Patrick Leahy, who chaired Judiciary when Democrats were in power, said that despite his personal objections to former Attorney General Michael Mukasey under the George W. Bush administration, he moved the process along in just under eight weeks.

Republicans have said generally they have no beef with Lynch’s qualifications and résumé. But Republicans are using her nomination as one way to fight Obama over his executive actions on immigration, and they have also repeatedly pressed Lynch over issues involving current Attorney General Eric Holder — who has had a deeply contentious relationship with GOP lawmakers.

In an interview Wednesday, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), a frequent Holder critic, said he was still undecided on whether he would support Lynch but sent a strong signal that he was not pleased with the federal prosecutor’s responses so far.

“She needs to show me and a lot of other members that she’s going to be a different attorney general than Holder,” Grassley said in an interview. “I haven’t come to that conclusion that she has, and that’s what I’m looking for.”

Grassley, who sent Lynch a list of 81 questions — many of them multipart — said he plans to send some follow-up queries to her. On Monday, Lynch returned answers to hundreds of inquiries submitted by committee members, known formally as questions for the record — together, they form a 221-page document.

The partisan griping over process comes even though Lynch is expected to win support from both parties. Within Judiciary, Republican Sens. Orrin Hatch of Utah and Jeff Flake of Arizona have said they will support her. On Wednesday, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) reiterated that he was inclined to back Lynch.

“I think she’s a good nominee,” Graham said. When asked if the committee vote on Lynch will be held over until later this month, he responded: “I don’t know. I’m ready to vote.”

Under the committee’s rules, any senator can ask for business, such as consideration of a nominee, to be held over for one week — a practice that doesn’t have to be deployed but has become routine. After Thursday’s delay, the next opportunity for a committee vote will be Feb. 26.

Of the past five attorney general nominations taken up by the Judiciary Committee, only that of Alberto Gonzales was held over, according to Democrats.

Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.), who sits on both Judiciary and Armed Services and has dealt directly with both the Carter and Lynch nominations, said the practice of holding over Judiciary Committee business for one week is “reasonable and common.” He also drew a contrast between the two candidates, noting that Carter has already served in senior Pentagon positions.

“Mr. Carter has operated at the top levels of the Defense Department for a number of years at various different times and has earned the respect of people on both sides of the aisle,” Sessions said. As for the attorney general position, Sessions added: “I think there is growing unease of the politicizing of the office of the attorney general, and it’s very controversial.”

Lynch has also contended that she has been treated fairly, at least during her hearing. In a response to Grassley in the written questions, she thanked the chairman for the “respectful and courteous way that you chaired my confirmation hearing.”

The Justice Department on Wednesday urged a speedy confirmation.

“As she showed at her Senate hearing last month, U.S. Attorney Lynch has a distinguished record as a no-nonsense, career prosecutor,” DOJ spokesman Brian Fallon said. “Senators from both sides of the aisle have praised her as highly qualified and deserving of confirmation. We hope and expect the Senate will act on her nomination as quickly as possible.”

At her hearing, Lynch impressed Democratic senators and picked up some support from Republicans, who have not protested her qualifications. But several GOP senators were frustrated with her defense of Obama’s controversial executive actions, which she testified are legal.

One of the committee’s newest Republicans, freshman Sen. David Perdue of Georgia, announced his opposition to Lynch in a statement Wednesday, adding that he “strongly” disagreed with Lynch’s support for Obama’s actions.

“While Ms. Lynch may have an impressive résumé, she did not adequately answer the committee’s questions nor alleviate my concerns about the consistency with which she applies our nation’s laws,” Perdue said. “After thoroughly reviewing her record and testimony, I am not confident she will defend the Constitution, especially when the president seeks to abuse his power.”

Senators put her through one more round of grilling through hundreds of written questions on issues spanning from immigration to war authorization, from enforcement of marijuana laws to guns, and other topics as esoteric as wildlife trafficking.

The attorney general nominee stayed on message — offering no new major revelations, repeatedly declining to weigh in on dicey policy matters and striking the same themes as her committee testimony last month.

More than once, Lynch promised that the Constitution will be her “lodestar” if she becomes the next attorney general — the prominent message of her opening remarks before the committee. And when Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) asked her to list three ways she would differ from Holder, Lynch stressed how she would bring her own approach in leading the Justice Department, such as “fostering a new and improved relationship” with Congress; bolstering DOJ’s efforts on cybercrime; and giving more attention to the “scourge of human trafficking.”

On the issue of oversight, Lynch also pledged to Flake that if she’s confirmed, she will work to improve DOJ’s response time for congressional inquiries. And she repeated multiple times that the department’s legal rationale for Obama’s sweeping executive actions on immigration is “reasonable” — a subject raised by numerous committee Republicans.

As she did before the committee, Lynch explained her answers through a legal lens, and she deferred answering questions about many hot-button issues — such as queries on voting rights laws and the immigration executive actions — since they are tied up in pending court cases.

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