Growing intrigue about a trio of controversial presidential elections also underscores the power of individual senators like Democrat Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Republican Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, when the biased balance is so evenly divided.
While Biden has preferred to have national security choices like Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Lloyd Austin installed at the Pentagon, the focus on nominees whose portfolios touch on the most sensitive domestic political issues is a controversial process. crescendo.
Another bruising trial is set to take place on Tuesday, with Interior Minister Deb Haaland nominated nominees for the FOP, calling the members of the GOP an extreme force in a showdown that could be uncomfortable for moderate Democrats. .
It is not at all uncommon for new presidents to get into trouble with some nominees – or even for several potential cabinet members to fall. Blocking a choice is one easy way for senators to increase their power and give to a new White House that they can not be taken for granted. And the policy clashes that cloud the confirmation hopes of candidates like Haaland and Tanden are quite predictable, as they reflect the rift between the parties.
But when a president has a reasonable governing majority in the Senate, confirmations become easier. If Democrats had a handful of seats, a senator like Manchin, who constantly had to judge the wind in his ultra-conservative state of West Virginia, would get a pass.
But when nominations depend on a party vote and a break-even point by Vice President Kamala Harris, Democratic leaders can offer no political coverage – at least without a lack of GOP ranks.
The problem now concerns individual nominees from the cabinet – whose defeat would hamper Biden and dive the bodywork of his government machine. But over the coming months, when it comes to extremely important and elective radioactive issues such as climate change and immigration, his entire presidency will be on the agenda.
While the situation is now strained, it is not out of the question that an illness, disability or even death among elderly senators can wipe out his ruling majority forever.
A nomination on the brink
Teeth’s struggle is characteristic of nominees who have problems due to their own political vulnerabilities, but who also fall victim to wider political forces outside of their own destinies.
Yet Tanden, the president of the Liberal Brainstorming Center for American Progress, is in a somewhat unique position to see her support wander right and left – a scenario that surprised some observers when she was nominated.
Republican senators say they are offended by some of her tweets that have now been removed, which have exploded the GOP and individual senators she now has to vote for. Of course, it’s a little rich for Republicans to complain about someone’s tweets after spending four years enabling a president whose so-called social media has left Teeth in the dust. And then there is the question of whether Tanden, a prominent female political figure born to Indian immigrant parents, is the victim of detrimental double standards.
After all, hypocrisy is the fat that often makes the wheels turn in the Senate. And Teeth also has lukewarm support from her own side. She was forced to meet with Sen. Bernie Sanders, an independent in Vermont, who oversees the Democrats, who are now chairing the Budget Committee and would be her main liaison. Sanders’ supporters accused Tanden of being among the Democratic elite who, according to them, piled the party’s nomination match against him and in favor of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in 2016. Tanden had to apologize during her confirmation hearing. for what Sanders complained about as her “vicious” “attacks on progressives.
Given her always dubious prospects, there was not much incentive for a senator like Manchin to support her. The West Virginian has supported the president’s nominees who have so far come for full votes. And he voted to convict former President Donald Trump of his accusation by the Senate – in an unpleasant choice, as his home state overwhelmingly supports the former president.
To protect his brand as a relatively independent voice, and to avoid being tarred as a rubber stamp for Biden, Manchin probably had to stand somewhere. He explained that he could not support Tanden because she represented the kind of divisive politics that Biden wanted to purge from Washington.
“I do not know her, probably a very, very good person, just basically a little toxic,” Manchin told reporters on Capitol Hill on Monday.
The West Virginia senator is also at the pivot of the fight to pass Biden’s $ 1.9 billion Covid relief bill, which all Republicans are likely to oppose. He said on Monday that he wanted to change the legislation to set a federal minimum wage per hour at $ 11 over two years, instead of the current Democratic proposal for an increase of $ 15 over five years.
Once Manchin Teeth cut loose, and after a string of Republicans – including Sens. Mitt Romney of Utah, Susan Collins of Maine and Rob Portman of Ohio – the example that followed – her prospects for confirmation did indeed become dire, despite the fact that the White House insisted it stands Monday in the election.
“They’ll have to pull her,” a senior Democratic senator told CNN’s Manu Raju. Teeth’s thin hope late Monday is likely to rely on Murkowski, who has yet to say how she will vote.
The Alaska Republican is an independent voice – and she voted to condemn Trump in his second indictment. But it’s hard to see how she would have an incentive to save an already concerned Democratic candidate, especially with her own election race ahead next year.
Power of attorney battle over climate change
The Haaland nomination differs from the Tooth case, as the New Mexico Housemate is very popular among most Democrats. Her nomination is historic because she would be the first Native American Cabinet member. She would also lead the Department of Home Affairs, an agency with a long record of discrimination against her community.
Democrats and White House officials told CNN on Monday that they expect a tense few hours when Haaland appears before the Energy and Natural Resources Committee on Tuesday.
And guess who could be the most important vote of the Senate in the panel and in the full Senate on Haaland’s prospects? Manchin again, who is chairing the committee and has not yet committed to supporting her nomination.
“We are very open to hearing her, and hopefully she will hear well,” Manchin, a longtime supporter of fossil fuel industries in his home country, said Monday.
Haaland is in danger of becoming the focal point of Republican attacks on Biden’s recommitment of the United States to the fight against global warming – which quickly rejoined the Paris climate agreement after taking office.
In the past, Haaland has opposed the issuance of new oil and gas drilling leases on federal land and has voiced support for a ban on hydrofracking, a method of extracting natural gas. She also supported the Green New Deal, the ambitious climate plan pushed forward by Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York – though not the Biden government.
The Green New Deal was the target of Republican attacks, claiming that restrictions on fossil fuels would destroy the U.S. economy. On Tuesday, the trial is likely to be a preview of the bitter partisan fighting that is likely to take place when Biden sends a climate bill to Capitol Hill.
A trial – finally
Not all of Biden’s candidates got into trouble on Monday.
Ironically, the reputation of moderation and steadfast temperament that Obama thought may have facilitated Garland’s path through a Republican Senate to the Supreme Court helped him in his confirmation hearing yesterday.
Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, a supporter of Archbishop Trump, said Monday that he would “most likely” support the nomination.