Senate might play the waiting game on Hillary’s confirmation

Glenn Thrush at Politico reports that some Republicans are planning to hold up Hillary Clinton’s confirmation vote because of their desire for more timely Clinton Foundation disclosures. Texas Republican John Cornyn (the incoming head of the National Republican Senatorial Committee) and Oklahoma Republican Tom Coburn have both publicly expressed dissatisfaction with Hillary’s answers at her Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing to questions about renegotiating the Memorandum of Understanding between the foundation and the Obama transition team. Those concerns, of course, were the reasons David Vitter gave for his vote against Clinton at the committee hearing.

Although neither Vitter, Cornyn, or Coburn will be able to filibuster Clinton’s nomination, they can disrupt tomorrow’s planned vote in the Senate. Majority Leader Harry Reid had scheduled it as a Unanimous Consent vote, which means that most senators need not be in attendance for the measure to pass and no one need vote individually.

However, if one senator in attendance objects, the majority leader is obliged to hold a full vote and record inviduals senators’ votes — and most of the Senate plans to be out and about for the Inauguration tomorrow. This means that the full vote (which Hillary is unlikely to lose) would occur, at the earliest, on Wednesday. And it will give guys like Vitter, Cornyn, and Coburn to register yet another vote against Bill Hillary Clinton.

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