Charles Malone: Burr, Tillis bow to wealthy

Regarding the Feb. 27 news article “Burr, Tillis won’t support Lynch for AG”: North Carolina’s senators in Washington, Richard Burr and Thom Tillis, have shown either ignorance or arrogance, or both, about the tradition of senatorial “advise and consent” for the president’s appointments to high office, supposedly based on qualifications, not policy differences.

With their joint opposition to President Obama’s nomination of Greensboro native, Harvard graduate and current U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, Loretta Lynch, as the next attorney general of the United States, they show their true colors.

It has been a tradition in American government for Congress to give presidents wide latitude for their appointment choices, short of incompetence. This is wise because it gives the party in control of the executive branch of government free rein to appoint like-minded appointees to carry out their particular policies.

But this logical exercise of check and balance between the executive and congressional branches of the federal government has been tossed aside in this caustic political age. Burr and Tillis have simply acted accordingly.

Sadly, these senators know where they come from: an oligarchy of the 1 percent. And they know where they fear to return to: the people.

This story was originally published March 15, 2015 at 4:00 PM with the headline "Charles Malone: Burr, Tillis bow to wealthy."