US President Barack Obama’s nominee for the next attorney general of the country will be facing a tough day when she will sit for a confirmation hearing before the Senate on Wednesday, as the event is set to highlight the prevailing tensions between the Obama administration and the new Republican Congress more evidently.
Loretta Lynch, who was nominated by President Obama to the post in November last year, is expected to win the confirmation from Senate.
Lynch is known for raking up a minor controversy in her 16 years of service with the office of US Attorney in Brooklyn, but the political analysts belief she will emerge victorious during the confirmation hearing.
According to the sources, she is expected to witness fierce grilling ending for hours from the Senate Judiciary Committee over several burning issues related to immigration policy, national security, civil rights, guns and her relationship with the congressional Republicans, who had frequent fierce encounters with Attorney General Eric Holder, who is considered to be Obama’s man Friday.
If reports are to be believed, some Republicans are of the opinion of using the opportunity of nomination process as a political battleground to defy the November immigration order of Obama that intends to ease the deportation threat for nearly five million undocumented immigrants.
David Vitter, a Republican, has already said that he will vote “no” on Lynch’s nomination. He complained that Obama’s pick for attorney general failed to respond his questions on immigration reforms and several other topics when they met earlier this month.
On the other hand, Chuck Grassley, who heads the committee, said that he will keep the hearing go on until the lawmakers ask all their queries.
Ronald Weich, a former top Justice Department official on legislative affairs, said, “There are obviously ongoing disputes between the administration and particular senators, and the nominee becomes the vehicle by which those disputes are aired.”
Weich is dean of the law school at the University of Baltimore.
Talking about Lynch’s fortunes, Senator John Cornyn, the second-ranking Republican in the Senate, said, “She’s an impressive prosecutor, a US attorney as well as professional. For me, anything that would expedite Eric Holder’s retirement is a good thing.
If elected, 55-year-old Lynch would become the first black woman to lead the department. Her selection comes at a time when the tensions between black communities and law enforcement departments have grown following the recent decision of grand juries to not indict two white cops who killed unarmed black men in two separate incidents in New York City and Ferguson, Missouri.
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