By Isaac Schorr
February 23, 2021 10:51 AM
Neera Tanden’s nomination to serve as the
director of the Office of Management and Budget appears to be on life support.
The odds are stacked against the Clintonista, boss from hell, and president of
the Center for American Progress being confirmed by the Senate. Her history of
mean tweets — especially those directed at the very senators whose support she
needs — is catching up to her. Joe Manchin, Susan Collins, and Mitt Romney have
all announced their opposition to Tanden over the last few days. (One of
Tanden’s past tweets had labeled Collins as “the worst.”) To become the first
OMB director to defend physical abuse by saying without a trace of self-awareness
“I didn’t slug him, I pushed him,” she’ll need to not only hold onto Democrats
Bernie Sanders (Tanden’s
nemesis) and Kyrsten Sinema (a purple-state senator with a history of
bucking the party line) but also pick off one of the two Republicans who have
yet to announce how they’ll vote: Lisa Murkowski and Shelley Moore Capito. At
first glance, Murkowski would appear to be the easier get — she’s more
moderate, with a history of crossing party lines — but she’s also up for
reelection in 2022 and has lost GOP primary fights before. She might be
reluctant to give Democrats this win. White House press secretary Jen Psaki weighed in
on the situation on Twitter:
Neera
Tanden=accomplished policy expert, would be 1st Asian American woman to lead
OMB, has lived experience having benefitted from a number of federal programs
as a kid, looking ahead to the committee votes this week and continuing to work
toward her confirmation.
Her defenders swiftly alleged a double
standard was at play. From Representative Judy Chu (D., Calif.), head of the
Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus, in
Politico:
Her
nomination is very significant for us Asian American and Pacific Islanders. I
do believe that this double standard has to do with the fact that she would be
a pioneer in that position.
So in the end, Neera Tanden really did
unite the Democratic Party . . . around identity-driven pseudo arguments that
alienate most Americans. Well done, President Biden.
Elsewhere on Capitol Hill, Merrick Garland
finally appeared before the Senate
Judiciary Committee, and was . . . not great. Unlike Tanden, Garland is seen as
a shoo-in for his position. Democrats are all but certain to vote “aye” as a
block, and a good number of Republicans might join them in making Garland
attorney general. Still, no conservative could have been particularly pleased
with Garland’s answer to a question from John Kennedy about biological males’
participation in girls’ sports. Garland dodged at first, claiming that “This is
a very difficult societal question you’re asking here.” When Kennedy pressed
him, Garland first reiterated that he “think[s] every human being should be
treated with dignity and respect,” (who doesn’t?) before adding that “the
particular question of how Title IX applies in schools . . . is something that
I would have to look at when I have the chance to do that. I’ve not had the
chance to consider these kinds of issues in my career so far.” Garland is
eminently qualified to lead the Justice Department, and Republicans should
thank God every day that Biden didn’t tap New York governor Andrew Cuomo for
the job, but they should be under no illusions about the actual nominee: He’ll
be a rubber stamp for the Biden administration’s ludicrous social agenda.
Finally, there’s Xavier Becerra, Biden’s
pick to lead the Department of Health and Human Services — an agency of special
importance during a pandemic. Becerra, a nun-hating, abortion-loving radical
with no real experience in health-care policy, is Biden’s worst cabinet choice
by far. He has shown not only thinly veiled scorn for half the country, but a
willingness to use the levers of power to punish his political opponents. The National
Review Online editors
said it best:
Any Biden
nominee to run HHS will share the president’s liberal views on abortion and
transgender issues, but Becerra’s record guarantees that he will use HHS’s
broad rulemaking authority to aggressively wage a culture war and alienate many
Americans. There is nothing Becerra can say at his confirmation hearing on
Tuesday that can erase that record.
Many of
Biden’s other nominees show that the president is more than capable of
selecting qualified Cabinet members with bipartisan credibility. Treasury
secretary Yellen, Secretary of State Blinken, and Secretary of Defense Austin
were each confirmed by overwhelming bipartisan Senate majorities.
It has
been befuddling to many of Biden’s friends and foes alike that he chose an
unqualified ideologue to run HHS during a pandemic. A majority of the Senate
should reject Becerra and give Biden an opportunity to try again.
Fauci’s Doom and Gloom
Moving on to pandemic news, it’s time to
state what has become obvious: Dr. Anthony Fauci is a disaster. Americans can
and should be grateful to Dr. Fauci for his many years of service and good work
rendered over the course of those years. But his continuous doom-and-gloom
messaging is a public-health liability at this point. The coronavirus vaccines
are here. They’re safe. They’re more
effective than we could have possibly imagined. They not only prevent
symptomatic illness, but transmission too. What’s more, the country is
distributing the vaccines at an impressive rate; a third of the inoculations
administered in the world have happened right here in the United States. And
yet, Anthony Fauci is making the
rounds on the Sunday shows talking about “approaching a degree of
normality” by . . . December? What on earth is Fauci talking about? This
disease is not going to be “eradicated.” The objective is to turn the threat it
represents into something resembling what the flu does every year, not wipe it
off the face of the planet — that’s an impossible task. Americans aren’t going
to wait until it’s been accomplished to return to normal life. Many already
have! Fauci isn’t just out of touch, he’s understating the value of the
vaccines in a way that’s both deceptive and discouraging.
Well, that wasn’t so bad, was it?
ADDENDUM: Check out David
Harsanyi for a fuller picture of how Fauci has fallen short of the god-like
powers some have attributed to him.
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