This article originally ran in the December issue of AVN magazine.
Democrats will be reeling for quite a while over the pounding that they took in this year’s mid-term election. And the adult industry should be nervously awaiting the confirmation hearings for President Obama’s nomination to replace Eric Holder: Brooklyn United States Attorney Loretta Lynch.
The Election
The result of the election will impact much, although not as much as might have been the case.
First, although the Republicans padded their advantage in the House and took over the Senate, they have neither a filibuster-killing majority in the Senate nor a sufficient percentage in either house to override a veto, of which there certainly will be plenty.
One point about the Senate election is this: The senators who were up for reelection all were elected in 2008, when the Republicans were hammered with Democrats riding in on Obama’s coattails and facing Republicans who supported the very unpopular Iraq War. (That war certainly solved all of the problems in Iraq, didn’t it?) With Obama amid his second term, he lost huge in the mid-term election—as has been the case with all two-term presidents for a century.
In 2016, several factors will favor the Democrats. For one, Democrats generally do better down-ticket in presidential years. Also, in 2016, Republicans need to defend 24 Senatorial seats, as compared to just 10 for Democrats. And those Republican seats are ones that came in with the 2010 election, when Democrats were trounced in another mid-term.
A second result of this year’s election is that the Republicans did well in gubernatorial races, as well as in state legislatures. The certain result from that is more restrictions on voting, especially in states where Republicans control the state legislature, the governor’s mansion and the secretary of state. For example, in Nevada, it presently is extremely easy to vote: weeks of early voting, easy registration, and no lines at the polls. That is a result of both houses being controlled by the Democrats; a moderate Republican governor; and a young, politically ambitious, Democratic secretary of state. We will see what happens here now that the Republicans took over both houses of the legislature and the secretary of state’s office. Look for it to get much more difficult to vote in every red-controlled state.
Another product of the election will be its effect on presidential appointments. You may recall that the Democrats, led by Harry Reid, changed the rules to prevent filibustering presidential appointments (except the Supreme Court). After the first of the year, Republicans will use their majority to delay the dickens out of President Obama’s appointments. But they can’t do that for the rest of the year. So, look for Democrats to ram through as many presidential nominations as they can for the rest of 2014.
The Attorney General
Double-Harvard-educated Loretta Lynch is a veteran pit-bull prosecutor in the office of the United States attorney in Brooklyn. Recall that each of the 94 federal districts has a United States attorney, appointed by the president, confirmed by the Senate and with a staff of prosecutors. She started in 1990 as an assistant U.S. attorney; was promoted to the top job by President Clinton; left the office during the Bush administration; and returned to the office in 2010 when she was re-appointed to the top job by President Obama.
Her prosecution pedigree includes major drug cases, political corruption cases and a choke-holding cop murder prosecution. She reputedly is afraid of no one.
Lynch would be the second woman attorney general, the second African American attorney general and the first to be both. Are you surprised that every Republican attorney general in history has been a white male?
Importantly, Lynch does not appear to have political ambitions, although you never know. She seems to be a lawyer—first, second and third. That is a good thing.
Keep an eye on the confirmation hearings. Expect her to be pounded by several Republican members of the Senate Judiciary Committee about obscenity prosecutions. Will she resurrect the obscenity-prosecuting unit? What will she do about all of the smut on the Internet to which children all have access? Will she enforce 2257?
The confirmation hearings are not likely to happen until next year, so the Republicans will have enough votes to defeat her confirmation. However, women in general are pissed off enough at the Republicans, a situation that would not improve if they nixed such a highly qualified attorney general nominee as Ms. Lynch.
