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“President Joe Biden’s nomination of Neera Tanden to lead the White House Office of Management and Budget was thrown into doubt Monday as key moderate Republican senators said they would vote against confirming her… Republican senators have griped about Tanden’s ‘harsh criticism’ and ‘personal attacks’ in her tweets, such as calling Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas ‘a fraud’ and saying ‘vampires have more heart’ than Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas… [last Friday] Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia became the first Democratic lawmaker to oppose the confirmation of Tanden.” AP News
Read our prior coverage of Biden’s cabinet picks, including Tanden. The Flip Side
The right is generally critical of Tanden.
“Tanden's problems go deeper than just the fact that she spent the last several years starting Twitter flame-wars in a manner that could be deemed unprofessional. For starters, there's that time when she retaliated against an employee who had the audacity to report sexual harassment by outing her at a company-wide meeting…
“Then there's the fact that she's a deranged conspiracy theorist who has blamed everything from Hillary Clinton's loss to Justice Anthony Kennedy's retirement on Russia… and that she once assaulted a journalist for asking Clinton about the Iraq War (Tanden maintains she merely ‘pushed’ him), and it's pretty clear Tanden lacks the temperament, manners, and self-control to manage the federal budget…
“Most importantly, Tanden isn't qualified for the job. All of Barack Obama's confirmed OMB directors either had prior experience at the OMB or the Council of Economic Advisers or in the banking industry. Mick Mulvaney, former President Donald Trump's OMB director, was a businessman before becoming a crucial player on spending and financial matters in Congress. In contrast, Tanden's pre-CAP work was all about campaigning and work on healthcare, not budgetary work or economics.”
Tiana Lowe, Washington Examiner
“Perhaps as disturbing as Tanden’s complete lack of qualifications to lead OMB is her penchant for dabbling in dangerous election conspiracies. If you have issues and concerns with Sidney Powell and her wild claims about the 2020 presidential election, you should be similarly concerned about Neera Tanden. Following the 2016 election, Tanden was all-in claiming Russians hacked election machines and changed votes in Trump’s favor — one might call it the original Dominion scandal. She then pushed the idea that the Electoral College should refuse to honor the results of the 2016 election to deny President Trump his victory.”
Bruce Carroll, PJ Media
“If Manchin finds her record too ‘toxic,’ don’t expect Republicans to contradict him — not for someone like Tanden. Why would they rescue her, or help rescue Biden from a faceplant of his own making? OMB usually goes to people who have a track record either in Congress or working well with it, not someone who spent the previous eleven years castigating its members… If Biden owed Tanden a spot somewhere in his administration, he should have found one that doesn’t require Senate confirmation. Instead of considering that in a 50/50 Senate, Biden blithely appointed Tanden without apparently even doing a preliminary whip count among his own allies in the upper chamber.”
Ed Morrissey, Hot Air
Others note that “Tanden is perfect for the role of part sacrificial lamb, part cautionary tale. If her nomination is defeated or withdrawn, Biden could get the man some Democrats on Capitol Hill believe is his real first choice, Gene Sperling. Sperling, who served as the top economic adviser to both Bill Clinton and Barack Obama, fits the Biden profile perfectly. Aside from being an Obama retread, he’s got a track record of success on big, bipartisan negotiations. He was a key player on the 1997 balanced-budget deal and helped Democrats win key policy objectives like the Children’s Health Insurance Program and the Clinton tax hikes on top earners…
“[Furthermore] killing the Tanden nomination would give Manchin more wiggle room on other issues. If every West Virginia voter knows Manchin scuttled Biden’s liberal budget nominee, that means Manchin has more political capital to spend on a more consequential vote down the line.”
Chris Stirewalt, The Dispatch
Some argue, “All political people, especially senators, should live with the same rules of political debate as the rest of us. They should not use their confirmation power to protect themselves from online criticism, however hurtful. Everyone draws the line at threats. But Tanden has just clobbered people the good old-fashioned way: with words…
“Tanden has apologized for her tart language. Senators — not just Manchin but also Republicans — should accept that and vote to confirm her. It would be one thing if Tanden had been nominated to a lifetime appointment for a federal judgeship, for which a higher standard applies and judicial temperament is part of the equation. But that test doesn’t apply with the same force to executive branch officials, and, in any event, presidents are entitled to broad deference in how to assemble their Cabinet… There are exceptions to every rule, but ‘mean tweets’ doesn’t even come close.”
Hugh Hewitt, Washington Post
The left accuses the Senators opposing Tanden of hypocrisy.
The left accuses the Senators opposing Tanden of hypocrisy.
“There is, of course, hypocrisy here -- particularly among Republicans, who spent the last four years saying they hadn't seen whatever the latest wild attack was that had emerged from Donald Trump's Twitter account or that it didn't matter. That suddenly someone attacking them on Twitter is disqualifying for a job in a presidential administration is quite the double standard…
“That said, if Tanden either withdraws or is rejected in a final floor vote, it will send a very clear message to those with ambitions to wind up in a presidential cabinet one day. That message? ‘Never tweet.’”
Chris Cillizza, CNN
“Republicans spent four years playing down and forgiving President Donald Trump’s disgusting tweets. Not a single Republican voted against confirming Richard Grenell, Mr. Trump’s ambassador to Germany, despite his history of Twitter trolling — including nasty comments about the appearances of female journalists and world leaders — which was far worse than Ms. Tanden’s tweets. Mr. Manchin voted to confirm Mr. Grenell, too…
“It is not fair to hold Mr. Biden’s nominees to a far higher standard because the president has called for unity while his predecessor denigrated it. Ms. Tanden should have been more civil in the past, like many people in Washington. But the Senate should approve presidents’ picks to staff their administrations unless those picks are grossly unqualified. Ms. Tanden’s long service in Washington, as a top player in Democratic politics and policy and as the head of a major think tank, makes her more qualified than was either Mr. Mulvaney or Mr. Vought.”
Editorial Board, Washington Post
Dated But Relevant: Critics of Tanden note that “during her tenure as CAP’s President, Tanden accepted millions of dollars from the regime of the United Arab Emirates, which built Dubai and Abu Dhabi using slave labor, along with massive donations from Facebook, Google, Microsoft, J.P. Morgan, the Walton Family and Michael Bloomberg, while hiding the identity of some of her think tank’s largest donors…
“In the weeks after Trump’s victory, Tanden joined numerous Democrats in encouraging electors of the Electoral College to ignore their states’ votes and refuse to elect Trump as President… But what really distinguished Tanden… was her repeated (and obviously baseless) claims that Hillary only lost because Russian hackers invaded the U.S. voting system and clandestinely changed Hillary’s votes to Trump’s…
“Democratic leaders and their media allies love to patronizingly warn that conservative media outlets and their audiences are prone to spread and believe crazy conspiracy theories. They purport particular worry when such conspiracies are designed to undermine faith and trust in the U.S. electoral system itself. Yet few have done more to destroy such confidence and faith than Neera Tanden.”
Glenn Greenwald, Substack
“If not Tanden, then who? My sources say Gene Sperling, one of the more progressive veterans of the Clinton/Obama era. He’s already served as head of the National Economic Council. Sperling was the author of several of the more imaginative policy proposals written for the Biden campaign. When the game of musical chairs ended, he was one of the few senior campaign aides who did not land a top job, but was advised to keep his powder dry just in case…
“Sperling has become more of a progressive since leaving office. His 2020 book, Economic Dignity, helps offset some youthful indiscretions of the Clinton years such as his work on the 1997 Balanced Budget Act. Most progressives would applaud, but he is just orthodox enough to win easy confirmation… should Tanden go down, Biden’s second choice would be a lot better than his first one.”
Robert Kuttner, American Prospect
“Also in the mix is Ann O’Leary, a longtime veteran of [the] Clinton world who recently left her gig as California governor Gavin Newsom’s chief of staff. O’Leary’s ideological inclinations aren’t as well defined as Sperling. But nothing in her resume suggests she would [be] less accommodating of progressive fiscal goals than Tanden would be. O’Leary’s association with the embattled California governor is weighing against her nomination, according to Politico, but the Biden administration’s desire for gender balance in its cabinet may overwhelm that concern.”
Eric Levitz, New York Magazine
