Senate set to confirm 1st black woman as US attorney general
Senate Democrats argued Thursday for long-overdue confirmation of President Barack Obama's nominee for US attorney general, a New York prosecutor who would become the first black woman to hold the country's top law enforcement job.
Loretta Lynch's nomination headed for a confirmation vote after a five-month wait that had incensed Democrats. Obama himself weighed in last week to lament Senate dysfunction and decry the wait as "crazy" and "embarrassing." Democrats controlled the Senate when Lynch was nominated last November and could have brought up her nomination for a vote then. After losing control of the Senate in the midterm elections, the Democrats held off with the encouragement of Republicans, and spent the time confirming judges instead.
There was an expectation that Republican leaders would move Lynch's nomination swiftly this year, especially since most Republican members of Congress loathe outgoing Attorney General Holder, who's seen as too politically close to Obama and even more liberal. But instead, the nomination became tangled in the dispute over Obama's executive actions limiting deportations for millions of immigrants in the country illegally. Once Lynch voiced support for Obama's moves, a number of potential Republican supporters abandoned her, and her nomination seemed to stall.
