Obama Aides Said to Weigh Senate Fight Replacing Holder

[Purveyor]

By Mike Dorning and Kathleen Hunter Oct 10, 2014 2:07 PM ET

President Barack Obama hasn’t settled on a pick for attorney general and his advisers are concerned that two top candidates, Labor Secretary Thomas Perez and White House Counsel Kathryn Ruemmler, may provoke damaging confirmation battles, a person familiar with the talks said.

Administration officials haven’t told Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of their preferred candidate or given any timing on a nomination, according to another person.

Both persons asked for anonymity to talk about private conversations among administration and congressional officials.

Attorney General Eric Holder announced last month that he’ll leave as the nation’s top law enforcement official as soon as a successor is confirmed. With Democrats in jeopardy of losing their Senate majority in the November midterm elections, Obama may seek to get his nominee through the process before the new Congress is seated in January.

White House spokesman Eric Schultz said in an e-mail, “We have no personnel announcements at this time, and we’re not going to engage in speculation.”

more...

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-10-10/white-house-said-not-to-tell-reid-of-holder-replacement.html

[tularetom]

1. Who is the president here, Obama or Senate Republicans?

It sounds to me like Obama is thinking of nominating somebody that the Senate will approve, instead of whoever he thinks might be best suited for the job.

Somebody needs to remind him that we elected him to appoint the best candidate. Holder already said he'd stay on until his successor is confirmed so it sounds to me like Obama has the senate by the balls. If they want to get rid of Holder bad enough they'll confirm whoever he nominates, if not, they can fucking well live with Holder.

Time for the president to channel his inner LBJ.

[Sopkoviak]

2. Presidential appointments, except the Supreme Court, need a simple majority to confirm. 51 votes!

The Democrats currently have 55 seats.

Do the math.

Who the fuck runs the country, President Obama or Harry Reid?

This goes for the Surgeon General too BTW.

The Senate changed its rules regarding filibusters on votes to confirm most judicial and executive branch appointments.

Under the old rules, at least 60 votes were required to invoke cloture, and if cloture passed, the filibuster would end.

But on Thursday, Senate Democrats took a series of steps to change how the filibuster applies to confirmation votes. Under the new rules, the vote to end a filibuster/invoke cloture only requires a simple majority vote of the 100 senators. Senators may still opt to delay a bill or nomination by filibustering the action, but only 51 votes will be needed to invoke cloture. (And yes -- 51 is required even if some senators are absent or seats are vacant.)

This change doesn't apply to nominees to the U.S. Supreme Court. And the change doesn't apply to pieces of legislation -- under the current rules, at least 60 votes will be required to end the filibuster of a bill.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/wp/2013/11/21/this-is-what-happened-in-the-senate-thursday-and-what-it-means-for-the-future/