Senate Republicans are in no hurry to confirm Loretta Lynch as attorney general, says Politico. That means a vote on her nomination could slip into April as a floor fight over abortion continues to drag on and a battle over the budget waits in the wings. Lynch has enough GOP support to be confirmed, but before senators get to a vote, they have to resolve the abortion impasse. Majority Leader Mitch McConnell dug in yesterday, demanding a finish to work on an anti-human trafficking measure before considering Lynch. He said the Senate would hold repeated votes on the bill in the coming days.
That leaves the Senate in a bind because Democrats have promised to filibuster the trafficking bill unless an abortion-related provision is stripped out. On Tuesday, 43 Democrats voted to block the measure on a procedural vote — denying Republicans the 60 votes needed to advance the legislation for final passage. If neither side relents, Lynch's confirmation could slip until after the Senate's two-week Easter recess, which starts at the end of March. Her margin is increasingly slim. This week, Tennessee Republican Sens. Bob Corker and Lamar Alexander said they would vote no. Most Republicans oppose her for backing President Obama's orders that could stop deportations and give work permits to 4 million undocumented immigrants.