Photo From Yahoo News/Reuters
In 1947, legendary Republican Senator and Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Arthur Vandenburg, according to David McCullough's renowned work Truman, sped the confirmation of George C. Marshall as Secretary of State in one day.
This action occurred at a time when Cold War Tensions were rising between the United States and the Soviet Union.
Where are Republicans like Vandenberg today that will work diligently for the good of the country to advance the confirmation process for Democratic Presidents?
They do not exist.
As many writers in various media outlets (like Jennifer Rubin and Greg Sargent of the Washington Post) across the country have recounted, Republicans in the United States Senate, many of whom, complain that President Joe Biden is not being bipartisan, have engaged in what they do best these past few decades: obstruction and delay.
Remember, over the last month, Republicans stonewalled confirmation hearings of Biden/Harris Administration Nominees by:
- Not doing their part in the Presidential Transition.
- Dragging their feet on a power-sharing agreement with Democrats.
- Not allowing any confirmation votes during the Trump Impeachment Trial.
- Not scheduling a hearing for some nominees before the trial like Merrick Garland for Attorney General.
- Forcing cloture votes on qualified nominees like now Secretary of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and Pending Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo.
What are the reasons for Republicans doing this during a pandemic and great socioeconomic distress? Policy differences are not one and do not be fooled when Republicans say so. It is a combination of Hypocrisy, Racism, Sexism, and an inability to govern.
Just look, as many have pointed out at Neera Tanden, the Biden/Harris Nominee to head the Office of Management and Budget.
As I wrote when she was first nominated, Republican whining about her tweets, given what they put up with Donald Trump and his cult followers spewed for the last four years, was mind-boggling.
To say she is not qualified or lacks the temperament for the job, as Susan Collins has said, for the position is equally absurd. As Jennifer Rubin pointed out in her piece titled, "Republicans’ appalling confirmation record is symptomatic of their entire approach to politics," Trump's first appointment to head the Office of Management and Budget Mick Mulvaney:
"He(Mulvaney) gleefully championed the 2013 federal government shutdown (“good policy” he called it). Other than the late John McCain, not a single Republican (Collins included) opposed him. He was sufficiently bipartisan, but Tanden is not? Are we supposed to believe that senators who ignored a president who was banned from Twitter for four years was “offended” by Tanden or “concerned” about partisanship? Please."
Tanden deserves to be confirmed. It is wrong that Republicans and Democrats Joe Manchin and possibly Kyrsten Sinema are being hypocrites and holding her tweets against her.
Republicans have also gone after Interior Nominee New Mexico Representative Deb Haaland because of her support for the Green New Deal and other asinine reasons. Apparently, Republican Senators like John Barrasso are sensitive to her (but not Trump's) tweets too. What a man. Fortunately, it appears her confirmation will proceed after West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin said he would vote to confirm her.
Finally, Republicans have expressed vocal and written opposition to Health and Human Services Nominee (and former Representative and California Attorney General Xavier Becerra,) saying he is not qualified for that position.
With that logic, why did Republicans support Ben Carson for Secretary of Housing and Urban Development or Betsy DeVos for Education in the Trump/Pence Administration?
None of the nominee's Joe Biden and Kamala Harris have put forth to help administer the Executive Branch are out of the mainstream.
There are no embarrassments like Betsy DeVos, Ben Carson, Rex Tillerson, Mike Pompeo, Keith Cuccinelli, or Scott Pruitt among the Biden/Harris picks.
They are well-qualified and experienced technocrats and in some cases former legislators, who deserve the opportunity to serve their country during this time of crisis.
Republican Senators and waffling Democratic caucus members (like Sinema, Manchin, and Sanders,) need to cut the crap and let Joe Biden and Kamala Harris have all their nominees.
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