Some of my overseas readers may be unaware, but our attorney general, Eric Holder, has announced to near-universal delight that he is stepping down, and the president, Barack Obama, has nominated a replacement, Loretta Lynch, for confirmation by the Senate.
The Senate, however, has not voted on her confirmation yet. The Senate Majority Leader, Mitch McConnell, sets the agenda for the Senate, and he has sequenced the voting on Miss Lynch to be after a vote on a law dealing with human trafficking. And the Democrat minority in the Senate is using the filibuster, a delaying tactic, to hold up a vote on that bill. No vote on human trafficking, says the majority leader, no vote on Miss Lynch.
This disturbs the "Reverend" Al Sharpton, because his taxes are used to pay those Democrat senators (he lives in New York) who are holding up the vote on Miss Lynch who is, of course, black. OK, maybe not his taxes, since he still owes $4.5 million in taxes that the White House seems terribly disinterested in getting back, and which the IRS seems less interested in getting than legal cash from innocent farmers.
But I digress.
Mr. Sharpton has decided that the frustration the majority leader feels at the minority using the filibuster is not why Miss Lynch isn't being voted on; no, it must be racism. So he has to do something, because racism is evil and must be addressed above all else, even if it means not eating.
Yes, not eating. This announcement was quoted in a story in the leftist site Politico:
The advocacy group [National Action Network] founded by the Rev. Al Sharpton, along with female
civil-rights leaders, are planning the hunger strike, in which groups of
fasters will alternate days abstaining from food until Lynch is
confirmed to replace Eric Holder at the Justice Department. Dubbed
“Confirm Loretta Lynch Fast,” the new tactic is designed in the mold of
actions by civil rights leaders such as Martin Luther King Jr., Mahatma
Gandhi and Cesar Chavez, organizers said.
Oh, there's so much to amuse ourselves with in that. Let's get past Sharpton calling himself "reverend" and start with the really good stuff.
"Female civil rights leaders", the quote starts. OK, is that leaders for female civil rights, or is it civil rights leaders with just X chromosomes? Is this a female civil rights issue, that Miss Lynch's confirmation vote is being delayed, not because the Democrats are filibustering the preceding bill, but because she is a woman? I guess not; we didn't hear from Sharpton when Zoe Baird and Kimba Wood were pulled by Bill Clinton as Attorney General nominees. Of course there was that little mess with not paying Social Security taxes on household employees with those two, but who really cares.
So no, it must be "civil rights leaders who are female." Well, does gender matter or doesn't it? If we shouldn't care if the Attorney General is female (or, for that matter, the president), then what difference does it make if the fasting people are male or female?
OK, so ... "fasting." Right now, there is a lady in Russia, a Ukrainian pilot, doing an actual hunger strike for an actual cause -- her own unlawful capture and incarceration by the Russians. She could teach Al Sharpton a ton about hunger strikes, the first part of which would be "Alternate-day fasting is not a hunger strike."
It does have a name, though. It's called a "diet."
I just wonder, though, what Loretta Lynch is thinking. If she has a shred of self-respect and a modicum of intelligence, she must be embarrassed that a clown like Sharpton is taking up arms on her behalf. I have to believe that she prays each night that she will be voted on in the due course of things and that her appointment, confirmation and legacy will all be disassociated with Al Sharpton. But that's too late, I believe.
Of course, the Democrats could always drop their filibuster and let the vote proceed.
Copyright 2015 by Robert Sutton
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