April 22, 2015
Unbiased Political News
In a rare moment of dispensing with his usual diplomacy and exchanging it for some rather blunt talk, President Obama is now calling out Republican lawmakers by name for criticism over their words and actions on Iran, Cabinet nominations and climate change.
During the past week, President Obama has targeted Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, as well as GOP Sens. John McCain of Arizona and Charles Grassley of Iowa for their words and actions on the Iran nuclear deal and the delayed confirmation of attorney general nominee Loretta Lynch.
“Enough. Enough!” Mr. Obama declared late last week, while delivering a testy lecture to Senate Republicans over the long wait Loretta Lynch has faced since she was nominated last November. “This is embarrassing, a process like this.”
The president didn’t stop there.
On Saturday, Mr. Obama chastised Sen. McConnell, saying: “We have Mitch McConnell trying to tell the world, ‘oh, don’t have confidence in the U.S. government’s abilities to fulfill any climate change pledge that we might make.'”
On Friday, Mr. Obama took offense to John McCain’s attempts to derail diplomacy talks with Iran, as well as his assault on the credibility of Secretary of State John Kerry.
“That’s an indication of the degree to which partisanship has crossed all boundaries,” Mr. Obama said. “That’s a problem. It needs to stop.”
On Thursday, Mr. Obama singled out Sen. Grassley, who previously urged the president not to push through Lynch during the lame duck Senate in November and December but now says Democrats should have acted on her when they had a Senate majority.
Asked how harsh words might help his cause, White House spokesman Josh Earnest called Grassley’s stance “duplicitous” and added: “Being nice has gotten us a 160-day delay. So maybe after they look up ‘duplicitous’ in the dictionary we’ll get a different result.”
It was the kind of “ouch” moment seldom heard from the White House.
Unbiased Political News
This is a White House with a new mantra: if you can’t join ’em, beat ’em! Allies have longed for the day when the president would dispense with niceties and fight and claw to get the job done. Now, Mr. Obama seems to be living up to expectations and promises to change the tone in Washington.
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| Attorney General-nominee Loretta Lynch |
Interestingly, President Obama’s “new-and-improved” tough guy approach seems to be working, as it now appears Loretta Lynch is finally on her way to a confirmation vote.
An agreement announced Tuesday by Senate leaders will allow both Republicans and Democrats to save face on a once-uncontroversial bill to help sex-trafficking victims that had turned into a litmus test on abortion. Although that issue has nothing to do with Lynch, Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell said he has been holding off her nomination vote until the trafficking issue was resolved.
Lynch, who is currently the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York, would replace Eric Holder and become the nation’s first black female attorney general. She has been waiting 164 days for a vote, far longer than perhaps any other attorney general nominee in recent memory.
Although a number of Republicans say they won’t support Lynch because of her backing of Mr. Obama’s executive moves on immigration, she is expected to win confirmation as early as this week with at least 5 affirmative Republican votes.
