The nomination could set up the first major post-midterms Senate showdown. Lame duck looms over Lynch

President Barack Obama nominated Loretta Lynch to be the new attorney general on Saturday, setting up what could prove the first major post-midterms Senate showdown.

Obama called for Lynch to be confirmed “without delay,” but White House aides say he’ll defer to Senate leaders on whether to press ahead with a vote during the coming lame duck session, or to wait until next year, when the Republicans will officially be in the majority.


Senior Democratic aides, meanwhile, said no final decision on timing has been made, but they are strongly leaning towards moving in the lame duck.

A confirmation vote could be used as leverage in other deals the White House and leaders are seeking in the lame duck.

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Incoming Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), however, made clear that he’s completely opposed, issuing a statement Friday evening promising “fair consideration,” but that Lynch’s “nomination should be considered in the new Congress through regular order.”

The question is a significant one — at the outset of what’s supposed to be a new effort toward cooperation, Obama and Senate Democrats would be doing the exact opposite by moving confirming such a senior Cabinet official in between the midterms and the Republican takeover of the majority.

That could give Republicans an easy excuse to point to for blame on future gridlock. But by waiting until the new GOP members are sworn in, Obama would risk not getting his choice — or any choice — confirmed for the job.

Lynch, a United States attorney from New York, has kept a low profile, but has quietly been in top consideration for weeks at the White House.

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Lynch would be the second woman in the post, and the second African American, following Eric Holder. That could make opposition from the Republican Senate more politically difficult, especially as she’s been previously confirmed by acclimation twice previously.

A career prosecutor who’s been confirmed twice by the Senate to one of the most prominent U.S. attorney positions, Lynch has experience with many of the major issues that a new attorney general would confront — including terrorism and financial crimes. She does not have a deep personal relationships with Obama or his close aides, or a resonance with the Democratic base eager to see the president pick fights more post-midterms.

At her nomination, Obama called her “tough, fair,” and committed to “fairness, equality and justice.”

Lynch said she looked forward to leading “the department that I love.”

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The rushed announcement took place in the Roosevelt Room of the White House on a Saturday morning — far from the most august way to announce a new top member of the Cabinet.

Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), the outgoing Judiciary Committee chairman, issued a statement praising Lynch’s selection, but made no firm commitment on timing.

“I have spoken with the President about the need to confirm our next attorney general in a reasonable time period, and I look forward to beginning that process,” Leahy said.

Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), who’ll head the Judiciary Committee when Republicans take over, said he was generally supportive of Lynch’s nomination but said he was looking forward to learning more about her.

“As we move forward with the confirmation process, I have every confidence that Ms. Lynch will receive a very fair, but thorough, vetting by the Judiciary Committee. U.S. Attorneys are rarely elevated directly to this position, so I look forward to learning more about her, how she will interact with Congress, and how she proposes to lead the department,” Grassley said. “I’m hopeful that her tenure, if confirmed, will restore confidence in the Attorney General as a politically independent voice for the American people.”

And timing isn’t the only problem Lynch would face. Sen. Jeff Sessions’ office sent out a reminder to reporters Friday of recent comments by Sens. Sessions, McConnell, Ted Cruz, Mike Lee and Rand Paul all saying that any nominee for attorney general would have to disavow Obama’s plan to provide amnesty to certain illegal immigrants through executive action. Obama has said repeatedly, including at his post-election press conference Wednesday, that he will go forward with the immigration reform executive actions before the year, unless Congress passes an immigration reform bill.

Sen. Chuck Schumer, a member of the Democratic leadership and the Judiciary Committee, as well as the senior senator from Lynch’s home state — and who twice recommended her for U.S. Attorney — called Lynch “a consummate professional” who “has a first-rate legal mind and is committed in her bones to the equal application of justice for all people.”

“I was proud to recommend her to be the US Attorney for my home community of the Eastern District of New York,” Schumer said, “and I will be prouder still to champion what must be her swift confirmation in the Senate.”

Fellow New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand also called for a swift confirmation of “a fantastic choice.”

Praising Lynch’s experience as a prosecutor on terrorism cases, Gillibrand said she’s “pleased to see such a highly qualified woman make history as the nation’s top law enforcement official.”

Lynch beat out several other candidates who have circulated since Holder announced his decision to step down in September. Among the leading contenders were two who would likely have had problems getting confirmation votes from Republicans: Labor Secretary Tom Perez, whose confirmation to his current post was a fight, and Solicitor General Don Verilli, who was the lawyer who defended Obamacare at the Supreme Court.

White House officials have signaled in recent weeks that they prefer Perez, a favorite for the AG nomination among many Latinos and progressives, to remain doing the Labor- and economy-related work of his current post.

Lynch is in her second tour of duty as the U.S. attorney from the Eastern District of New York, which covers Brooklyn, Queens, Staten Island and Long Island. She previously served in the job during the last few years of Bill Clinton’s presidency, and has been back in the post since the beginning of Obama’s. In addition to her time as a prosecutor, she spent time in private practice at the outset of her career and in between her two stints in her current office.

But for an insular West Wing that’s already expected to lose some of the people closest to the president — including Holder himself — Lynch’s nomination is a major departure.

And coming at a point when many expect the new GOP-majority Senate to eventually tilt toward special prosecutors, that’s about more than just comfort. An attorney general would need to be able to anticipate the president’s thinking without actually talking to him about any of the matters at hand, that could prove particularly tricky.

That was seen as one of the key points in favor of Kathy Ruemmler, the former White House counsel whom Obama was seen to favor for the AG job, but who pulled herself out of the running last month.

Obama, White House aides have said, sees the next attorney general as being a key figure in helping him complete several issues he sees as fundamental to the legal legacy he wants, including sentencing reform and figuring out a solution to closing the detention center at Guantanamo Bay.

Manu Raju and Burgess Everett contributed reporting.

Correction: A previous version of this story mischaracterized Michael Mukasey’s confirmation process.

CORRECTION: Corrected by: Daniella Diaz @ 11/08/2014 11:27 AM Correction: A previous version of this story mischaracterized Michael Mukasey’s confirmation process.