Mitch McConnell Exacts Revenge By Slowing Down Obama's Nominations

WASHINGTON — When former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) triggered the "nuclear option" to eliminate the filibuster for most nominations in November 2013, the top Senate Republican issued a categorial threat.

"You'll regret this," said Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY). "And you may regret this a lot sooner than you think."

Seventeen months later McConnell is running the Senate, and he has made good on that promise during the first 100 days of Republican rule. The new Senate has confirmed just two judicial nominees so far (both in the last two weeks). And in a possible sign of more things to come, the high-profile executive nomination of Loretta Lynch for attorney general has been twisting in the wind for five months and counting, longer than any nominee for the job since 1985.

"Let me give you some idea. In President (George W.) Bush's last two years, Democrats took over. By this time we had confirmed 15 — fifteen — of his judges," Sen. Patrick Leahy (VT), the top Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, told TPM. "That speaks for itself — the Republicans will play partisan politics. Look at Loretta Lynch."

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