It was hardly a surprise when conservative firebrand Jeff Sessions of Alabama announced his opposition to the confirmation of Loretta Lynch as Attorney General. But I am surprised he followed the formulaic approach of waiting until after Lynch’s Judiciary Committee to make this announcement, since his position is that the Senate needed to block any nominee to any key Justice Department post that supported the president’s executive action on immigration.
Since the president is not going to offer a nominee who shares Sessions’ view that he is a constitution-defying tyrant, the practical effect is to insist on going without anyone as Attorney General, which in turn allows the administration to run the Department as it wishes via its current staff. But in Sessions world, where defiant gestures count as “governing,” that doesn’t much matter.
