In a move defying the GOP base, former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani has jumped into the confirmation process for Obama’s Attorney General nominee, Loretta Lynch.
Giuliani added his voice to the nomination process by sending a letter to South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham reminding him that “How we treat nominees like Ms. Lynch has important constitutional implications.”
The former Big Apple mayor went on to say that “the scope and the breadth” of the advice and consent function of the U.S. Senate has always been geared to give a president “the deference to choose his Cabinet.”
Giuliani then told Lindsey, and by extension the rest of the Senate, that Loretta Lynch does not rise to the threshold of being unqualified or unethical and, therefore, deserves a hearing. There seems to be little doubt that Lynch is conventionally qualified for the role, but she is most certainly a purely political choice.
Proving that she will be that purely political operative, Lynch already showed that she will be the AG for illegal immigrants when she told the Senate that illegal immigrants have just as much right to work in America as legal citizens.
In any case, Rudy’s letter comes just as Republicans seem ready to block Lynch’s nomination.
Powerful Republicans do not support Lynch. Texas Senator Ted Cruz said that Lynch would be even worse than Eric Holder, the most political AG in American history.
But, by some counts, Lynch might have enough Senate votes to clear the hurdle. However, if Republicans gain the upper hand and block her nomination, she could lose enough votes to miss her mark.
Giuliani’s letter, though, just might give moderate Republicans the cover they need to buck the block on Lynch’s nomination.
In the end, Giuliani not only urged Senator Graham to bring her nomination to a vote, he said he’d vote for her himself. “[U]nder the present circumstances,” Rudy said, “I would vote to confirm her if I were a member of the Senate regardless of my political affiliation.”
Follow Warner Todd Huston on Twitter @warnerthuston or email the author at igcolonel@hotmail.com.
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