Hopefully Whoever Replaces Neera Tanden as OMB Nominee Has Never Called Ted Cruz a Vampire – Vanity Fair

Neera Tanden is officially out as Joe Bidens Management and Budget nominee, which means one thing: Republicans have succeeded in ensuring that no one who has sparked an inane Twitter feud or said anything mean about lawmakers will ever be in a position of power in the United States government. And to think how close we came to having the high-minded, decent, and civil discourse for which Washington has become famous sullied by a partisan who once compared Mitch McConnell to the villain in a childrens book.

Tanden, president of the Center for American Progress, had been on the ropes for weeks, particularly after conservative Democrat Joe Manchin announced he would not vote to confirm her, meaning Biden would need to lure in some Republican defectors. But the final straw may have come Tuesday, when it became apparent to the White House that the moderate Republican theyd been wooingLisa Murkowski of Alaskawould be unlikely to support Tanden without some kind of concessions from the administration on energy policies that her colleague, John Thune of South Dakota, told reporters had been very harmful to her state.

That was a no-go for the White House, as Politico reported, and Biden accepted Tandens letter withdrawing from consideration. I do not want continued consideration of my nomination to be a distraction from your other priorities, she wrote, acknowledging that there appeared to be no path forward to gain confirmation. I have the utmost respect for her record of accomplishment, her experience and her counsel, Biden said in his own statement, and I look forward to having her serve a role in my Administration.

What that role will be, and who will be nominated in Tandens place to lead OMB, is not yet clear. According to Politico, Democrats are split at the moment between three potential contenders: Shalanda Young, whod been set to serve as Tandens number two; Ann OLeary, a former aide to Hillary Clinton and, more recently, the embattled California Governor Gavin Newsom; and Sarah Bianchi, a former Biden economic adviser from his old veep days. As for Republicans, one assumes theyre scouring all three of their Twitter feeds to make sure none of them have compared Ted Cruz to a vampire.

The irony of the situation, in which Republicans professed to be scandalized by Tandens tweets after ignoring the deranged missives that Donald Trump spent the last four years blasting out on a daily basis, is lost on virtually no one. Being a combative asshole online makes white guys like Trump and some of his nominees fighters, but lamenting the fecklessness of Susan Collins makes a woman, particularly a woman of color like Tanden, radioactive, as Republican Senator John Cornyn described her last month. You should be judged by the time, one White House official told PBS correspondent Yamiche Alcindor. And the time we were in, we just had a fool in the White House tweeting all kinds of shit. So, its just remarkable that people cant separate that.

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Hopefully Whoever Replaces Neera Tanden as OMB Nominee Has Never Called Ted Cruz a Vampire - Vanity Fair