National
Lynch Nomination Is Early Test of Republican Senate
President Barack Obama listens at right as US Attorney Loretta Lynch speaks in the Roosevelt Room of the White House in Washington, Saturday, Nov. 8, 2014, where the president announced he would nominate Lynch to replace Attorney General Eric Holder. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)
(Bloomberg) – Senate Democratic leaders are showing little appetite for pushing through confirmation of Loretta Lynch as U.S. attorney general before they surrender control to Republicans in January.
A vote on the nomination likely will be delayed until Congress’s new session, though no final decision has been made, said a Senate Democratic aide who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal party deliberations.
An early 2015 vote on Lynch’s nomination would give Republicans a chance to show they want to work with President Barack Obama in the final two years of his presidency. A Democratic effort to force through Lynch’s confirmation in December may inflame partisan rancor and lead to enhanced Republican scrutiny of Obama’s nominees.
Obama announced his selection of Lynch, 55, as his nominee to succeed Eric Holder and become the first black woman to lead the Justice Department on Nov. 8, four days after the president’s party lost the Senate majority in the Nov. 4 election.
