GOP BASE OPENLY DECLARES THAT LYNCH SHOULDN'T BE CONFIRMED BECAUSE SHE'S BLACK

I'm not at all convinced that Loretta Lynch will be confirmed as attorney general, even though she's a nominee both parties should be able to agree on:

She is a two-time United States attorney whom the Senate confirmed by acclamation in 2000 and again in 2010....

Ms. Lynch gained prominence for her work prosecuting members of the New York Police Department for the 1997 case in which a Haitian immigrant, Abner Louima, was beaten and sodomized with a broom handle. The case became a national symbol of police brutality....

As United States attorney for the Eastern District of New York, Ms. Lynch oversees federal prosecutions in Brooklyn, Queens, Staten Island and Long Island.

Her office is known for its work on organized crime, terrorism and public corruption. It has prosecuted the planner of a subway bombing plot, Mafia members and public officials, including Representative Michael G. Grimm, a Republican, and State Senator John L. Sampson, former State Senator Pedro Espada Jr. and Assemblyman William F. Boyland Jr., all Democrats.

Her office has also worked aggressively on gang-related cases, including winning a rare death-penalty conviction for Ronell Wilson, who killed a police officer.

But she's a black woman, and the right-wing base isn't even trying to hide its naked racial anger anymore -- as far as conservatives are concerned, replacing Holder with another black person is, in and of itself, an act of racism (although I suppose it would be just fine if Obama somehow chose a black wingnut).

Here's the lead comment at Lucianne.com:

0bama continues to show his contempt for Congress and US by appointing from the drained cesspool he has left of racist and bigots for public office. Nominating a black woman to replace the contemptible Eric Holder, who has outwardly chosen sides on criminal and civil issues that sparked riots, will not tone down down the distrust instigated by 0bama and other black activists.

Here's some of the early reaction at Free Republic:

Shes black so she is prolly there to do some coverup for Eric Holders crimes. You can bank on it

She being black also means more amped up racial jive from our minority occupation regime in DC

Am I prejudiced? No more than Obama. Jarrett, Holder, are so f em

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Outside of being a black woman, what are her qualifications?

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"Lynch served on the trial team that prosecuted and won convictions against New York City police officers for violating the civil rights of Abner Louima, a Haitian immigrant who police sodomized."

So I guess she will continue the DOJ's favorite pastime. Looking for phony racism under every rock.

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She's black, female, from New York, a Clinton appointee, and Barky's choice. Already I can smell the corrupt odor of "Just Us" and Affirmative Action favoritsm seeping in like raw sewage.

At Fire Andrea Mitchell, there's this:

Loretta Lynch -- the next radical Attorney General?

Loretta Lynch the radical U.S. attorney in Brooklyn may be Obama's replacement for Eric Holder. Loretta Lynch doesn't get much attention because another progressive liberal radical U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara of Manhattan gets the limelight. He’s another radical being considered by Obama to be the next Attorney General. But should Loretta Lynch get the job offer, the race and sexist cards are already been played. Loretta Lynch is a black female, so any criticism of her would not only be racist, but sexist too.

The response at Fox Nation is typically thoughtful:

She resembles Sheila Jackson Lee, only she looks like a baboon and Ms Lee resembles a silver back.

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Wonder if this black woman will prosecute thugroes for hate crimes when they play the knockout game ?

And then there's this, at a blog called Liberty Unyielding:

It may be instructive to note in this regard that Lynch has a working relationship with Al Sharpton, who told Business Insider in September that his "civil rights organization," the National Action Network, was "engaged in immediate conversations with the White House on deliberations over a successor whom we hope will continue in the general direction of Attorney General Holder."

That Business Insider story back in September was titled "Al Sharpton Says He's Helping The White House Pick The Next Attorney General," though what he said was that he was "engaged in immediate conversations" with the White House, and then qualified that by saying, "We did not say we are in the decision making. We are in conversation to reach out to them to have meetings about what we want to see in a successor." That denial hasn't prevented the Daily Caller from going with this take on the pick:

Did Al Sharpton Just Pick The Next Attorney General?

An MSNBC host may have just chosen the next attorney general of the United States.

President Obama is expected to nominate Loretta Lynch to replace Eric Holder as attorney general of the United States, just two days after Obama’s post-election meeting with Al Sharpton and weeks after Lynch's own meeting with Sharpton....

Wait -- what? Lynch actually met with Sharpton? About the AG position?

Well, no, according to the Caller:

Lynch met with Sharpton and Esaw Garner, the wife of a New York City brutality victim, in Lynch's Brooklyn office on August 21, 2014.

Yes -- they met because Sharpton is advising the widow of Eric Garner, who died in a police chokehold in Staten Island in July, and Lynch's office oversees federal prosecutions in Staten Island.

Oh, and of course Sharpton was involved in the case of Abner Louima back in the 1990s. Louima was treated so brutally by the cops that it was hard back then even for conservatives to question the convictions of his assailants. But racial attitudes are changing for the worse again. The case might just be one more part of the right's attempt to portray Lynch as a tool of Sharpton.

None of this matters if Harry Reid can get her confirmed in the lame-duck session. And even if not, Republicans will be picking their battles; this may not seem like a fight they want to have.

But their base will want them to defeat her, or at least make a great show of declaring her a radical and an affirmative-action hire, even though she seems as if she's eminently qualified and a real pro.

I could also imagine Rand Paul or Mike Lee attacking her from the left, invoking Matt Taibbi:

Lynch allowed HSBC to pay a fine equivalent to five weeks of profit after admitting to laundering $800 million for drug cartels.

— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) November 8, 2014

I don't see any possible way HSBC settlement was a good deal. Someone had to do time.

— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) November 8, 2014

It frustrates me that, as Taibbi says, there have been so few prosecutions of bankers in the Obama era. But that's life in a plutocracy where it takes a billion dollars to run successfully for president. (HSBC was assessed a $1.9 billion fine in the case.)

So we'll see if she's confirmed. Whether or not she is, just note that members of the GOP base -- i.e., the only people who reliably turned out to vote on Tuesday -- are not only filled with hate toward black people right now, or at least toward non-wingnut blacks, they don't see any reason to hide it.