Posted on 04/21/2015 7:45:48 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
Surprised? Don’t be, as the confirmation vote for Loretta Lynch was never going to be stalled forever. Under pressure themselves, Democrats finally cut a deal on the human-trafficking bill to get the Lynch nomination completed:
“I’m glad we can say there is a bipartisan proposal that will allow us to complete action on this legislation so we can provide help to the victims who desperately need it,” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) announced on the Senate floor.
“As soon as we finish the trafficking bill, as I’ve indicated for some time now, we’ll move to the president’s nominee for attorney general in the next day or so,” he added.
Democrats will spin this as a victory, but they caved on the use of revenue from the law’s fine structure for abortions:
After weeks of abortion-related stalling on the trafficking bill, which in turn has delayed Lynch, the solution turned out to be a fairly simple one. The handshake agreement on trafficking gives Republicans what they sought: assurances that none of the funds provided to trafficking victims will be used for abortions, under the Hyde amendment.
But Democrats also got what they wanted: A path forward without expanding the Hyde language. The fees collected from convicted traffickers will be used for legal services and other concerns but under the new language cannot be used for medical services. Separate money appropriated by Congress, and thus subject to Hyde, will then be used for medical services.
That means that the Hyde language is now unnecessary for the bill, since none of the revenue can be used for medical services at all of any kind. Those resources will have to come from appropriations instead, which already carry the Hyde language. It’s the same result through a different mechanism for Republicans, who wanted to make sure that the trafficking bill didn’t get used as a back door for federally funded abortions. Reid and the abortion lobby worked hard to open that path by demanding the removal of the Hyde language from the bill, but in the end they ended up with nothing at all.
That will allow the Senate to take up Lynch’s confirmation as Attorney General. Most whip counts published in the last few weeks have her winning the vote, but not by much. National Journal’s Sarah Mims says Lynch has 51 confirmed ayes, with another 13 Senators publicly undeclared. Don’t expect too many more Republicans to climb aboard the Lynch bandwagon, and there may still be a surprise or two on the way to confirmation. We’ll see.
Update: It’s worth noting that John Cornyn originally offered to direct all revenues from this bill into the general fund and then use appropriations to fund the services it authorizes, an offer that’s very similar to this compromise, and which Reid rejected outright.
Now the R’s need to create an itemized list of why she is an absurd candidate for the position.
If the the majority party was going to reject her nomination they would have already had the vote.
how are these two things related?
Wrong. The emperor still has his pen.
And who's going to stop him? The REPUBLICANS??
Hah!!
More MSM scare items.....I don’t think she’ll get a vote either up or down for a few more months....
They’re not.
Except in the petty, childish, minds of a certain group of 100 corrupt politicians.
The fix is in.
RE: how are these two things related?
Quid Pro Quo. We agree to this and you agree to that.
Exactly right. Good comment.
She’s a shoe in and we all know it.
Quid Pro Quo. We agree to this and you agree to that.
************
In other words, we agree to cave if you agree to not criticize us. The Democrats are still the de facto majority.
Republicans always cave. Its what they do. Its who they are. Its how they roll.
She’s a shoe in...
She’s a black Harvard Law grad.
Doesn’t get better than that!
Looks like Eric Holder’s twin sister gets to be our Attorney General even though she testified that she will not uphold the rule of law.
Why not? Tim Geithner got to be Treasury Secretary even though he was a tax cheat.
Sure wish we had an opposition party.
Tell your senate critters to vote NO!
A quisling defeatist attitude in my opinion. As for myself, I voted this last election, even against the bile issuing from my throat about our RINOs, to put some order and decency back in our government. The only thing I wanted and asked for was to stop anything Obama wanted and to keep anyone he wanted in his administration from being confirmed by the Senate.
What is so hard about that? A waste it seems. Our RINOs are more concerned about their perception in the media and being called bad names by it. They don't care about the horrible disgusting names I call them almost daily. They don't get their 'ego fix' from me....featherbedding, vain a$$holes.
If we do not get a Walker (not my first choice) or a Cruz as President, we are lost I'm afraid. Perhaps in future history's events and logs all will be reconciled in a costly final battle of the Yangs vs. Kohms and all with be set right. But right now, it sure doesn't seem like that's anytime soon.
You got it!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.