White House officials blasted the Republican-led Senate rejection of Debo Adegbile, the former lawyer for a convicted cop-killer, who was nominated by the president for a top job in the Justice Department.
The Senate rejected the President Barack Obama’s nominee 47 to 52 after several Democrats lined up with the GOP caucus.
The vote was “a travesty based on wildly unfair character attacks against a good and qualified public servant,” said the White House statement.
Adegbile “represents the best of the legal profession, with wide-ranging experience, and the deep respect of those with whom he has worked,” the White House complained.
The statement tersely acknowledged Adegbile’s work for Mumia Abu-Jamal, who killed a wounded cop in 1981. Abu-Jamal was a member of the Black Panthers, and his case has become a fashionable cause among left-wing lawyers and activists.
Adegbile volunteered to legally aid Abu-Jamal during Adegbile’s tenure as acting president and director-counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund. Adegbile switched jobs in 2013, when he went to work for a Democratic Senator.
“The fact that his nomination was defeated solely based on his legal representation of a defendant runs contrary to a fundamental principle of our system of justice,” said the White House statement.
The statement didn’t name the killer, nor any of the Democratic Senators who voted for and against Adegbile.
Adegbile was backed by several Democratic Senators up for election this year, including North Carolina’s Kay Hagan, Louisiana’s Mary Landrieu, Virginia’s Mark Warner, Alaska’s Mark Begich and Colorado’s Mark Udall.
Several Democratic Senators voted against Adegbile. The no votes were cast by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, plus North Dakota’s Heidi Heitkamp, Wet Virginia’s Joe Manchin, Alabama Sen. Mark Pryor and Pennsylvnia Sen. Bob Casey.
GOP leaders trumpeted their win.
“This is an embarrassment for President Obama and the Democrats who thought it was a good idea to nominate a convicted cop-killer’s most ardent defender to head a DOJ Department,” said Reince Preibus, chairman of the Republican National Committee.
“Vulnerable Democrats running in 2014 just voted to confirm a radical nominee whose positions on civil rights, religious liberty, voting rights and the second amendment are far outside the mainstream,” Priebus gloated.