As if it’s not enough to have dysfunction in the leaderless U.S. House, Sen. J.D. Vance, R-Ohio, is trying to spread the dysfunction to Illinois.
Taking advantage of labyrinthine Senate rules, Vance is persisting in his hold on the appointment of April M. Perry to be the U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, a job that is based in Chicago.
Why? Well, Vance has changed his reason for doing so since he started using “procedural holds” in June, when he blocked all appointments to the Justice Department.
At first, Vance said he was going after the entire Justice Department because “Donald Trump is merely the latest victim of a Department of Justice that cares more about politics than law enforcement.” Now he says he is not happy about Perry’s ties to Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx, although earlier he said he had no objections to her.
He’d have a tough time trying to sell that kind of back-and-forth reasoning before a judge in any municipal court.
In effect, Vance is helping the kinds of dangerous criminals the Justice Department chases. The professionals staffing the U.S. attorney’s office here will move forward on their cases. But it’s a problem to have the top leadership position vacant. It cramps the ability to plan long-range investigations or open new areas of investigations that will affect the office months and years out. Uncertainty will hover over supervisors and deputies to supervisors. A vacuum at the top can lead to inertia. No one wants to cramp the ability of the new leader, when that person finally is approved, to put her stamp on the office.
At a time when crime is of growing concern, it makes no sense to leave unfilled the post of the leading federal crime fighter in Chicago. Evidently, Vance doesn’t care.
Vance puts the Senate Democrats in a tough spot. With their slim majority, they could rewrite the rules to allow the nominations to go forward, but that might come back to haunt them if they find themselves in the minority after future elections.
Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, wants unanimous Senate consent for the nominations of Perry and Rebecca Lutzko in Ohio, whom Vance is also blocking. Both nominees have gone through extensive vetting, Durbin says.
A Durbin spokeswoman on Thursday said Durbin will continue to come to the Senate floor and press for the confirmation of the two U.S. attorneys.
Durbin is right to plug away until Perry’s nomination succeeds. Vance should do what’s right and get out of the way.
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