Three nominees for the Biden administration are facing tough confirmation votes in an evenly split Senate. Opposition to them is part personal, part political but some on the left are invoking racism.
Summary
A confirmation vote for President Biden’s pick to lead the Office of Management and Budget has been postponed after bipartisan opposition has emerged.
- While Biden operatives have enlisted the help of Asian-American interest groups to prop up Neera Tanden’s imperiled nomination (opposition to her nomination has nothing to do with her ethnic heritage), an ally of Tanden’s has reportedly been touting her own qualifications behind her back.
- At issue is Tanden’s history of Twitter use attacking both Republican and Democrat senators, which has caused West Virginia Senator Joe Machin, a Democrat, reason to not support Tanden’s nomination.
- Tanden is not the only nominee facing the hot seat: Rep. Deb Haaland encountered tough questions on domestic energy policy in her confirmation hearings to be Interior Secretary. Sen. Manchin announced he will support Haaland.
- Finally, California Attorney General Xavier Beccera is being pummeled in his hearings to become Biden’s Secretary of Health and Human Services on his stance on abortion and “Medicare for All.”
- CNN stated the obvious that moderate Democrat senators Manchin and Arizona’s Kyrsten Sinema hold the key to Tanden’s nomination (not to mention the entirety of Biden’s legislative agenda), neither of which are or have announced support for Tanden.
- MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow accused Republican senators of “bad faith” arguments in their objections to HHS nominee Xavier Beccera, who falsely claimed he did not sue the Little Sisters of the Poor over Obamacare mandates.
- Huffington Post pilloried a trio of Republican senators who grilled Haaland, characterizing them as hypocrites and “science deniers”, a derisive ad hominem phrase enjoyed by the Left.
- Newsmax is reporting Neera Tanden is preparing to withdraw her nomination, saying “the latest signs grew that [her] nomination was doomed in the Senate.”
- RedState blogger “Bonchie” reveled in the news that Sen. Lisa Murkowski, an Alaska Republican, did not know of particular tweets Tanden directed at Murkowski several years ago until a reporter showed her a tweet yesterday. Murkowksi has yet to announce how she’ll vote on Tanden’s nomination.
- Bronson Stocking of Townhall wrecked Xavier Beccera in a fact check that shows he did in fact sue the Little Sisters of the Poor, a religious order dedicated to helping the elderly poor, relying on a devastating exchange between Beccera and Nebraska Sen. Ben Sasse who said Beccera was attacking religious liberty.
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© Dallas Gerber, 2021
