Durbin Plays Race Card in Defense of Lynch

danjoseph | February 24, 2015
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Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) evoked memories of the civil rights movement, Tuesday in an effort to lambaste Senate Republicans for holding up the nomination of Attorney General Nominee Loretta Lynch, because OF COURSE HE DID!

"I would think, as we approach the 50th anniversary of Selma, that Republicans should be more sensitive about what they're doing to this woman," Durbin said.

Essentially, Durbin is saying that if the GOP continues to hold up her nomination, they are racist or at the very least will be called racist by Durbin and his Senate colleagues.  

Durbin also asserted that Lynch is being held up for no good reason.
 

"She is an African-American woman who has been nominated for the highest law enforcement position in the history of the United States.  She's being held up for no substantive reason. That's not an implication. That's a statement. You can't celebrate civil rights and ignore the reality that one of the most important civil rights milestones, the appointment of an African-American attorney general, is being held up for no good reason."

 

Is it still a "civil rights milestone" if we've already had an African American attorney general?  I'm sorry, I'm just not familiar with how the whole "milestone" system works. 

Of course, Republicans have legitimate concerns over Lynch, particularly with her defense of  the President's executive actions on immigration.

Durbin, being black himself understands the hardships and....oh...wait.  Durbin is white.  Even so, he seems to be asserting that any black nominee should have an easier time getting through the confirmation process due to the fact that the 50th anniversary of Selma is coming up.  It's like a special, Selma anniversary, confirmation process, "Fast Pass" for African American nominees.

The Senate's only African American member Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC), was far less demagogic in his comments about the Lynch confirmation process.

"One beautiful thing that history has taught us is that we want to judge people by the content of their character and not the color of their skin. So for this to somehow be a racial conversation seems to be wrong -- this is a conversation about competence, and qualifications. This is a question about who's best to serve our country. Whether that's in May or Christmas time, it's important for us to move forward and do the right thing."

Wow!  Doing what's best for the country instead of playing racial politics with the decision as to who should be America's top law enforcement official! What a concept!

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