Women activists to McConnell: Don’t make Loretta Lynch a ‘sacrificial lamb’
6th April 2015 · 0 Comments
By Joyce Jones
Contributing Writer
(TriceEdneyWire.com) – Civil rights leaders and activists have in the past two weeks conducted a flurry of conference calls to vent their growing frustration and anger over Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s refusal to bring to the floor a vote to confirm Loretta Lynch.
The federal prosecutor is poised to make history as the first African-American woman to serve as U.S. attorney general. But at 140 days and counting, Lynch is instead making history for being forced to wait longer for a confirmation vote than any nominee for the position in 30 years.
Tired of talking among themselves, a group of about 20 women faith and civil rights leaders on March 26 took Lynch’s case directly to the source of the delay by staging a protest outside of McConnell’s leadership office in the U.S. Capitol. The protest took place just as the Senate prepared to recess for Easter recess. The members are set to return April 13.
Melanie Campbell, president and CEO of the National Coalition on Black Civic Participation and convener of the Black Women’s Roundtable, and Barbara Williams-Skinner, president and co-founder of the Skinner Leadership Institute organized and led the protest.
“We will not be moved, we will not go back, we will not stop,” declared Williams-Skinner as she led a prayer at McConnell’s door.
Earlier in the morning, the group met with the Kentucky lawmaker’s chief of staff to discuss the reasons for the delay. Since the Republican Party took control of the Senate in January, the list has grown: President Obama’s executive actions on immigration; a human trafficking bill with controversial abortion language that Democrats oppose; and passing a federal budget. The staffer’s responses boiled down to a series of talking points that only added to the group’s frustration.
“At the end of the day, she is being used as a political football and that is not acceptable,” said Campbell.
So instead of leaving the Capitol after being informed that McConnell was “too busy” to speak with them, the group formed a circle a few feet away from his office, held hands and prayed, asking God and the Senate majority leader to not allow Lynch to be used as a sacrificial lamb.
“We think it’s ironic and distasteful that during this upcoming Holy Week that she would be used as a sacrificial lamb, like a pawn being played. No other nominee has had a more than an 18-day wait on average,” said Williams-Skinner. “If it looks like a duck and talks like a duck, it is a duck,” she added. “The duck is that [Lynch] is being treated differently. That’s a standard that allows some people to call this both racist and sexist.”
Her sentiments echoed other Black leaders’ speculation in recent weeks that there might be more sinister reasons for the delay. After all, she is imminently qualified for the position, as even those who’ve said they’ll vote against her agree. Moreover, she has already been confirmed by the Senate twice before. So, what’s left, her supporters ask.
Texas Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, who met with the women between House votes and accompanied them to McConnell’s office, did not want to accuse anyone of racism, but did acknowledge that the historic delay raises questions that need to be answered.
“This is a group of women representing thousands of women, thousands of African Americans, who are appalled and outraged that Loretta Lynch, a qualified African-American woman, who’s been confirmed twice by the Senate, hasn’t even gotten a date [for a vote] and it’s been five weeks since she was confirmed out of the Judiciary Committee,” said Jackson Lee. “We can’t think anything other than she has been discriminated against.”
McConnell has some explaining to do to the American public, the women agreed. Williams-Skinner said he may not even be aware of the message he’s sending to the nation by holding up the vote, but it strongly suggests gender and racial inequality.
“History is a great teacher. If you study it you see this is the second woman and the first African-American woman [attorney general nominee] and the only difference in what’s going on is [race],” Campbell observed. “She’s imminently qualified. She’s jumped through all the hoops and is ready to serve. And that’s what we’re talking about – serving the country. The American people know fairness and it’s not fair what’s happening.”
Fairness is really the bottom line for the women leaders. Ideally, when the time comes, Lynch will be confirmed but, they acknowledged, the outcome is not a given nor is that what they’re asking for.
“Mitch McConnell doesn’t have to guarantee that she’s confirmed. He only has to make sure that a vote is made possible. That’s all we’re asking him to do, not to guarantee confirmation – that’s up to the 100 members of the U.S. Senate,” said Williams-Skinner. “Our issue right now is he has the authority today to call for a vote. It has nothing to do with human trafficking; it has to do with his lack of will. It’s an issue of leadership and we want him to step up as a leader and do what’s morally right.”
Before convening for a two-week recess March 26, the Senate held what’s known as a vote-a-rama – a blizzard of amendment votes before passing a final budget bill – that lasted until 3.00 a.m. Lawmakers voted to repeal Obamacare, but a confirmation vote for Lynch was not on the table. That vote will now not take place before mid-April and will most likely happen later.
Until then, the group declared, lawmakers have not heard the last from them.
“We plan to continue through the recess in the districts,” Campbell said. “We’re going to the district offices and we’ll be right back here on April 13.”
This article originally published in the April 6, 2015 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.
