Sen. John McCain said he imagines Loretta Lynch, President Obama’s recently announced nominee to be the next U.S. attorney general, would be confirmed if the Senate waits until Republicans officially assume their majority status — a timeline many Republicans are calling for.
“I think elections have consequences and therefore you give his nominees the benefit of the doubt. It doesn’t mean you’re rubber-stamped,” the Arizona Republican told Newsmax TV.
“But I voted in favor of some of his nominees who I would have never submitted to the Senate but that’s our job, advise and consent,” Mr. McCain continued. “And again, why not wait until you have a new Senate where we can look at this with some time to examine — it’s one of the most important positions there is.”
“And I would imagine from my first glance at her credentials that she would get approved by the Senate,” he said. “This is a very outstanding young woman from everything I can tell.”
Some Republicans, notably Sens. Ted Cruz of Texas and Mike Lee of Utah, are calling for Ms. Lynch, now the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, to take a position on the constitutionality and legality of Mr. Obama’s possible executive actions on immigration, under which activists expect him to grant tentative legal status to most of the approximately 11 million illegal immigrants in the country.
And though there have been no specific major objections raised about Ms. Lynch, a Harvard-trained lawyer, Republicans are advocating a deliberative process to replace outgoing Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr., who the GOP has heavily criticized for his handling of issues like the botched “Fast and Furious” gun-running operation and the IRS’s scrutiny of tea party groups.
The GOP-led House of Representatives voted to hold Mr. Holder in contempt over his refusal to turn over documents related to Fast and Furious.
Ms. Lynch has been confirmed twice by the Senate to her U.S. attorney’s position, most recently in 2010, but Sen. Orrin Hatch, Utah Republican, said there should be a “full and fair” process — something he said is particularly hard to do in a post-election lame-duck session of Congress.
“It has been nearly five years since Ms. Lynch’s confirmation as U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York, and she is not well known in Washington,” Mr. Hatch wrote in a recent opinion piece for The Washington Times.
• David Sherfinski can be reached at dsherfinski@washingtontimes.com.
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