Sad News: Neera Tanden Won't Be America's Next Office of Management and Budget Director
This headline is from the Guardian, but the story is straight out of the Onion:
Neera Tanden withdraws as Cabinet nominee after facing opposition
I turned to the cats and said, "yo, whose idea was this embarrassment in the first place?" Everyone was at a loss. Whichever lowly paper jockey was forced to draw up the necessary paperwork/documents to submit this nomination for consideration may have ulcers now. This is in the Harriet Miers ballpark of regrettable and hilarious nomination missteps.
First, let me express my relief that this clown won't be rewarded with a cushy government post (this time). In my opinion, this is a person who has demonstrated poor leadership, poor judgement, and not knowing what the word progressive means. Something that shows all three: some of you may recall that she spent time in the Obama White House, helping to conjure up the Affordable Care Act, the gift to insurance companies that can't stop, won't stop giving. Second, any speck of doubt I had about the Clinton machine's stranglehold on the Democrats has disappeared. (Tangentially, I sometimes forget that Democrats are addicted to losing and are firmly committed to the losing-is-winning strategy. See: Nancy Pelosi tearing up Donald Trump's State of the Union speech but voting for his budgets. Get 'em, tiger! So maybe I've talked myself out of my disbelief after all.) This is the best explanation I have for how Omnishambles Clinton personal friend and Russiagate careerist Neera Tanden was considered for the post. (Also possible: Joe Biden confused her for someone else and no one told him.) (Seriously, was David Brock not returning calls or what?)
In case you also managed to dodge this gong show but wanted some highlights, Wikipedia provided a great little collection of comments about her nomination:
During the confirmation hearing, Tanden apologized for several of her tweets attacking Republican senators, including tweets calling Susan Collins "the worst", comparing Ted Cruz to vampires, and using the nickname "Moscow Mitch" for Mitch McConnell and comparing him to Lord Voldemort. Senator John Cornyn described Tanden as "radioactive" in contrast to other Biden nominees he felt were more acceptable. Senator John Kennedy stated that she "called Senator Sanders everything but an ignorant slut", a reference to a 1970s Saturday Night Live catch phrase. NPR described her as "Biden's most controversial Cabinet pick".
Many members of the 2016 and 2020 Bernie Sanders presidential campaigns, such as Briahna Joy Gray, strongly dislike Tanden and have drawn an explicit distinction between "progressives and Neera Tanden"; Politico described her nomination as "the equivalent of rubbing salt in the wound".
In February 2021, Senator Joe Manchin said he opposed her nomination due to "overtly partisan statements" in the past, putting her approval in doubt due to the 50-50 split in the Senate between both parties. Other senators, including Susan Collins, Rob Portman, Mitt Romney, and Pat Toomey said they will also vote against Tanden's nomination. Collins cited Tanden's deletion of over 1,000 of her tweets after the announcement of her nomination for a reason why she is not voting to confirm her which, according to Collins, "raises concerns about her commitment to transparency".
Shout out to John Cornyn - "radioactive" has now been added to my insults repertoire.
I guess when you spend a lot of time in Clintonland, where up is down, black is white, Omnishambles Clinton is POTUS, Russia and Bernie Sanders ruined everything, something something resistance, it must be quite shocking to be so roundly rejected. The sycophantic bubble is cozy and soundproof, and dissociating from reality works in some situations. I don't have enough brain cells that could even team up and fathom out the gall needed to trash so many people, then delete a large cache of insult-laden tweets, THEN STILL SHOW UP for the nomination, even setting aside the tepid performing regret when career advancement is on the line. All of which is to say, I actually, really, truly believe that she thought she was going to be approved.
Anyway y'all, in the interest of the process, no doubt, Neera Tanden is withdrawing her nomination from consideration (but I do wonder who wrote the letter to Joe Biden.) Thus, one more star is extinguished, another bright light dimmed.
P.S. Judd Legum, the founder of ThinkProgress, a casualty of Neera Tanden's leadership slash destruction over at the Centre for American Progress, started a new venture called Popular Information. I recommend it. A recent feature covers Mitch McConnell coming for whatever is left of the Voting Rights Act.
Comments
Love It
Neera is an immoral, toxic shill. Glad to see her suffer humiliation like this.
After the lies she promoted to go after people like Bernie and Tulsi ("Tulsi's a Russian asset", "Tulsi is pro-Assad"), not to mention as part of Hillary's core crew, Neera can go eff right off.
Too bad. So sad.
Ditto
What you said.
What galls me
is the all out war Team Biden fought for this POS.
Ron Klain, Biden's Chief of Staff, threatened, with a furious face and barely controlled rage, that Neera will be at Biden's side, with or without a confirmation. Klain behaves like he didn't know that Presidential Cabinet nominations run into resistance and are stopped in every administration, as far as I can remember. (Obama withdrew Tom Daschle and 2 others. Bush 2. Trump 2. At least.)
Too bad all that energy isn't directed to action that will help the people of our country.
NYCVG
Neera will still be placed somewhere
That is what has been said since this started. If she isn't confirmed they will put her somewhere where she can probably do whatever it is she is supposed to do. Rising covered this today.
Can we start a pool on both Biden and Psaki for when they leave?
Biden will leave before the end of the year. If you want that pinned down I am think between August and Nov.
Psaki will maybe last a year if that. She doesn't have what it takes to lie well unless she is enjoying herself.
"Somewhere"
is one thing.
Under Bernie's feet in the OMB---B is for budget----was sending me over the edge
NYCVG
This was done against Hillary
That is my guess. The republicans and Manchin are rejecting any return of the Clintons and especially toxic Hills. Just my thought, but it makes some sense, aye?
I am waiting to see Manchin vote to confirm (dammit forgot her name) the women that will look over the energy policy. Anyway if he votes for her then how can he be a misogynist. This should cause some heads to experience a wtf do I do now?
Sorry I missed this on my 1st read:
Brilliant. What a fun memory to bring back for this episode. Ha. It is a repeat of Bush/Clinton/Bush/Obama/Trump ain't it?
Ding Dong ta witch is dead. Saw a tweet of graphic on this yesterday and the 1st one was of Dorothy's house on the witch of the east and her toes curled up. Ha.
lol listen to this: Bernie trolls Smeera.
ETA
Something about a train taking a dirt road.
Agree 100%
Hillary be gone.
OTOH Jennifer Granholm was confirmed. I always thought of her as a ClintonLand resident. Maybe I'm wrong on this?
NYCVG
Granholm's Wiki page has been edited recently
so you may be right. Under the title it says that Biden is president so the Wiki updater liar has been busy on her page already. Some guy has been editing WikiPedia for years every day all day. And many are made untruthful. She is an ex guv of Michigan. Better than the current one he was thinking of putting in his cabinet. Yay. I hope.
Thanks, snoopydawg
NYCVG
"the largest Democratic Party super PAC"
that's all I needed to hear, thanks.
PU! wiki parts haven't been updated in five years. What were her feelings about RussaiGate? never mind. Did she have TDS? srsly nvr mnd
I was just reading wikileaks.org this morning. I think every one should read wikileaks on the regular, these people are not right. I'm not right.
Peace and Love
Free Assange
That's what
vaguely remembered. Hilarryland. In deep.
Thank you.
NYCVG
That mystery Wikipedia disinfo agent would be “Philip Cross”
https://www.qwant.com/?q=philip%20cross%20wikipedia%20editing&t=web
Some two thousand tweets about "Moscow Mitch"?
My guess is that McConnell made damn sure that there were zero Republicans. Then Manchin or Sanders could stop it. They withdrew because they didn't have the votes.
I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.
Is Bernie still getting the blame for Neera?
Manch was very vocal about not voting for her, but people are saying it is misogyny that is keeping her down which is what they accused Bernie of doing. And tying it to him and his bros.
I will add a couple of tributes to dear Neera.
Blumenthal is correct.
They pushed too hard for her to just abandon her totally. She'll get a consolation prize somewhere.
Idolizing a politician is like believing the stripper really likes you.
No surprise! Some of the usual suspects came to her defence. LOL
Can no one tell them to
stop digging? They've already reached the depth of Trump's public shills; iow they look ridiculous.
Neera was rejected
because of her overwhelming dreadfulness.
Leave it to the DNC dopes to try to make this fit into their Identity Politics frame of bullshit.
NYCVG
Here's jimmy. Bernie Prank Calls Neera Tanden.
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8gXsyF7j_-g]
Shalanda Young
is up next I guess. I remembered her from a Hill interview last year:
The Remedy: Shalanda Young explains how Congress spends our money
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4V8eHnqtMLs width:500]
When I first saw that vid I was like "Yuck!" but only because Congress is not very functional in my view. After I watched it again the other day, I like her. As for OMB she would be a squillion times better than Neera. Neera is not qualified to scrape shit from the bottom of shoes if you ask me, but nobody does. I wish her and Her would take a permanent vacation with Huma to Freak Island and stay there forever. Or just go to the special place with Madelaine Albright the original feminist bomber from hell. Have you ever heard a hungry child cry? FUCK Sorry, I got distracted.
Good luck and love to all.
Reprinted from TPW:
And a good morning it is! No Neera, for one thing. Plus, Cuomo hanging way back out of camera range.
Ha anyone but me noticed that whenever a Corporate Dem is in trouble the PTB try to shift the reasons why the individual is in trouble?
In Neera’s case, trolling nit-wits like Jennifer Rubin are saying Neera got the ax because she is a “woman of color.” Really? Neera’s replacement, pre-approved by Bernie, is named Sholonda Young and is black.
Team Cuomo seems desperate to narrow the scope by talking ONLY about the sexual harassment charges. which they are confident won’t matter.
The actual threats to Cuomo staying in power (ego) is that the NY State Assembly and Senate are taking away his power bit by bit, exercising their SuoerVeto rights and that his Dereliction of Duty killed 15,000+ elderly patients in nursing homes.
If Cuomo announces he isn’t running for his fourth term, it will be because of his loss of Dominance, Control, and Raw unchecked Power.
NYCVG
Who woulda thunk --
that a swamp creature like Joe Biden would appoint a swamp creature like Neera Tanden?
Will wonders never cease?
The ruling classes need an extra party to make the rest of us feel as if we participate in democracy. That's what the Democrats are for. They make the US more durable than the Soviet Union was.
No loss: actually a big win
Or perhaps there's more subtlety involved: the nomination was an apparent sop to the Clintonistas but behind the scenes those in the know expected her to publicly run into a buzzsaw. Manchin got a chance to play out a role as a bipartisan while actually doing Biden a favor. Kabuki is an all too frequent occurrence in DC. We'll get a better idea about how the Biden folks feel about Tanden when we see/hear what post they end up offering her.
Well, I guess I was wrong
I figured they'd come up with some way to pull this off. I wonder who really made the call for her to withdraw and what deal they made with Neera to pull out? Sadly, I doubt this is the last we'll hear of her because now she's going to be a martyr for the IdPol warriors.
Oh well. The real story here is still how hard the Biden administration pushed for Neera vs how hard they've pushed for $15/hour min. wage. That's the takeaway.
Idolizing a politician is like believing the stripper really likes you.
Indeed!
NYCVG
I figured that they were angling
towards forcing Bernie to cast the final vote to confirm her, just as a way of twisting the knife that they already inserted into his back...
She'll still show up as Undersecretary of Something, just below confirmation-required level. Hillamala has spoken, and will want her around for after they finally kick Uncle Tapioca's wheelchair down that flight of stairs.
Twice bitten, permanently shy.
I did too.
"I figured that they were angling towards forcing Bernie to cast the final vote to confirm her, just as a way of twisting the knife that they already inserted into his back..."
Sadly, I have zero faith that if Bernie had been in a deciding vote position he would have voted no or even got some sort of concession for a yes. The Dems know well his two biggest weaknesses (that he's too nice and that he's too afraid of "getting Nadered") and thye just keep using them against him. (Similarly, I wish I could get excited about his "fight for $15" but I just can't for these reasons.)
It's been revealing to me to have seen some of the YouTube lefties, who should really know better by now, discussing the pick of Tanden like it was a mistake they didn't think through because she is so divisive to the Bernie supporters. I'm not as smart as some of these folks, but I could see this was an intentional middle finger and a classic example of Clintonesque counter-programming by the Dems. That she and Bernie would have been working together was absolutely no accident. Tanden being so personally insulting to Bernie was both humiliation and protection, because they can rely on him voting against his own interests to avoid looking like he's making something personal.
However, one really funny thing I saw out of all this: Biden supporters claiming the Tanden nomination was offered up as a sacrificial lamb to Republicans who will have to answer to their constituents for working with his administration. C'mon man! First off, despite the presence of many Obama people around Biden, they just aren't clever enough to pull off 11th dimensional chess like President MyBoss (snort.) And they pushed too hard for Tanden. Had they just abandoned her, I'd say maybe there was something to that thought. Also, look at the people kvetching now about how a woman of color just can't catch a break. Anyone really think they would cross those people?
Idolizing a politician is like believing the stripper really likes you.
I can just hear the conversation
between Bernie and the faceless dem political enforcers that would have made that vote happen: "Nice set of fingers you got there. It'd be a shame if anything happened to them...".
I hope that one day he publishes a book about how the dems have achieved such utterly emasculating power over him. I think that it would be a good read.
Twice bitten, permanently shy.
Bernie = Paul Newman in “The Hustler” where they break his hands
Hmm… still wondering what the real reason was for that Band-Aid on Bernie’s face at the 2016 Dem national convention…
You and me both,
for sure...
Twice bitten, permanently shy.
Can't say that it is surprising.
Greenwald: Such a sleeze that she earned emity from the L and R
Spot on. This gets right to the point. Smeera collected lots of money for Hillary to use when she became president, but alas. So once again she has collected money for Biden. Glenn talks about her tweets and it wasn't that she just attacked the left, she smeared them and called them Russian assets and other names. Slander is what he called it. Worth a watch.
Also talks about the military buildup in DC. Where are the pubs on this outrage? Mike Lee says he defends the constitution and hopefully he will see the patriot act 2.0 and kill it.
Plus .... good watch.
I thought Clinton's attack dog would be approved, whatta relief
I find it interesting that the press only talks about Rs
She said "Voldemort" or whatever but they haven't been reporting the slurs against lefties. They just vaguely say she was critical.
Here is the typical attitude of an establishment D,
as exemplified my good friend, a party activist: When a Republican criticizes a Democrat, it validates the lifelong beliefs of my friend. She expects and welcomes their remarks.
When a lefty criticizes a D candidate, she is shaken to the core, enraged at the stupidity the lefty shows, that party unity is most important, and this disunity is why her D party just cannot get things done.
Over and over.
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
yes, because the midterms are coming up
it occurs to me that, of course, anyone who believes that the Russians bought a few Facebook ads and thus completely affected the outcome of the 2016 Presidential race would also believe that a disagreement on policy among Dems and lefties would mean the loss of the House of Representatives.
And after mid-terms,
here comes the general election. The forever reasons for falling in line.
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
It’s always the same twisted, self-contradictory illogic…
Leftie-hippie punching by the Dem kool kidz is always “in” because said lefties and hippies are (1) ridiculous, insignificant rainbow-unicorn dreamers with zero power, while also being (2) the cause, with all our kvetching, for Dem disunity, denying the party the power to achieve anything.
I was kind of hoping for a vote to see what
Bernie would have done.
"Without the right to offend, freedom of speech does not exist." Taslima Nasrin