Republican Senators Say 'Mean Tweets' Disqualify Biden Nominees. Make Your Own Joke, We're Fresh Out.

And 'transparency.' They want 'transparency.'

The Republicans don't want to confirm "partisan" nominees to positions in the Biden administration? Really? REALLY?

Republicans are currently having a tantrum over the news that President-elect Joe Biden is nominating Neera Tanden to head the Office of Management and Budget because she said mean stuff about them on Twitter.

"I think, in light of her combative and insulting comments about many members of the Senate, mainly on our side of the aisle, that it creates certainly a problematic path," Texas Sen. John Cornyn said, calling Tanden "radioactive" and Biden's "worst nominee so far." After four years of pretending not to see the president's latest incendiary tweets, Republicans sat down with Hooked on Phonics over the holiday weekend and are suddenly able to read. Hosanna! And boy howdy are they offended.

"She's been pretty partisan in some of her previous positions. And in many cases, with respect to Republican senators who would have to vote on her potential nomination," South Dakota's John Thune told   Politico , while Ohio's Rob Portman, who once headed the OMB himself, tut-tutted, "Of all the jobs, that's one where I think you would need to be careful not to have someone who's overtly partisan."

UH HUH.

Russ Vought, the current head of OMB, was confirmed by a Republican Senate despite having said in 2016 that "Muslims do not simply have a deficient theology. They do not know God because they have rejected Jesus Christ his Son, and they stand condemned."

He was preceded in the position by Mick Mulvaney, a founding member of the Freedom Caucus. The same Mick Mulvaney who once described Social Security as a Ponzi scheme. The same Mick Mulvaney who accused Planned Parenthood of "trafficking in pieces of dead children." The same Mick Mulvaney who came before the American people and announced that the government had looked and looked, and the only place they could find to host the G-7 meeting was at Trump's Doral hotel. The same Mick Mulvaney who used his position to put a hold on congressionally allocated defense funds for Ukraine — you may remember something about that? — because the president was trying to squeeze that country into investigating Joe Biden.

And while we're on the subject of partisan nominees, let's talk about John Ratcliffe, the current Director of National Intelligence. Ratcliffe, who used his position on the House Intelligence Committee to run interference for Trump during the impeachment, accused Democrats of fabricating evidence in the Russia investigation, and publicly mischaracterized former DOJ employee Lisa Page's testimony about the Hillary Clinton email investigation. Ratcliffe's first nomination to DNI was scuttled after it emerged that he'd lied on his resume . The Senate only confirmed him, despite his lack of legally mandated qualifications , because otherwise Trump was going to keep that nasty Twitter troll Ric Grenell in the position indefinitely.

Grenell, perhaps the least diplomatic person alive , was confirmed 56-41 as ambassador to Germany, where he immediately set about offending one of our staunchest allies.

Mike Pompeo, who led the Benghazi hearings to prove that Hillary Clinton was somehow responsible for an attack on an embassy halfway around the world, sailed through his confirmation to head the CIA and later as secretary of State. The same Republican Senate that sat on Merrick Garland's nomination for a year was happy to bless the elevation of various purse designers , coal magnates , dermatologists , and rich donors to represent our country abroad.

So you can MISS US with this handwringing about partisan nominees. Ditto with the bullshit about "transparency."

Maybe, maybe not. But the Senate is not obligated to confirm anyone who hides this information

— Senator John Cornyn (@Senator John Cornyn) 1606656809.0 

OH. FUCKING. PLEASE. Leave aside the fact that these assholes had zero problem with Trump withholding his tax returns. Forget even that the president's son-in-law, whose portfolio includes "everything," had such skeevy secrets he couldn't get a security clearance without a shove from the president.

We've got a coal lobbyist running the EPA, an oil lobbyist as Interior secretary, a corporate lobbyist running the Department of Labor, a Transportation secretary whose family runs a shipping company, a lawyer for the steel industry as the US Trade Representative, a Commerce secretary who still hasn't managed to divest himself of all his various business interests, an Energy secretary who represented an automobile trade association , and we'd still have a former Raytheon lobbyist at Defense if Trump could manage to keep help for more than five minutes.

And while we're on the topic, Republicans didn't give a rat's ass if Trump used "acting" staffers to indefinitely evade the Senate's right to vote on nominees to top jobs.

It doesn't make a damn bit of difference who Biden nominates. The GOP is already announcing its plans to obstruct the incoming administration at every turn — albeit usually less idiotically than Josh Hawley.

Let me explain this to you. Corporate liberals are woke capitalists. The corporatists love critical race theory and… https: //t.co/Cr2uNsTbwp

— Josh Hawley (@Josh Hawley) 1606773734.0 

Senate Republicans manifestly do not care about conflicts of interest or partisanship or actual qualifications for the job. Neera Tanden is a qualified labor economist who called them names, and now they're going to sulk and play the victim. Third verse, same as the first.

IGNORE.

[ WaPo / Politico ]

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