There is so much schadenfreude in the fight over the Neera Tanden appointment that I fear we are losing perspective. This fight is not just about Tanden. It is also about the future of the Biden administration.
Tanden has made many enemies with her sharp words and mean tweets, especially among progressives. And as the head of the Center for American Progress, she has had commerce with forces that are not friends of progressives. These two factors have led too many to tilt too weakly against the efforts to block her appointment as budget director. That is a real mistake.
Administrations get defined by early battles. Think of Clinton and Lani Guinier. This will be a defining battle for the Biden administration. The opposition to her appointment is neither principled nor just: Wildly more outrageous behavior got a pass by these same Senators under President Trump. And a President should have the right to fill his (or her — let’s dream) team with any qualified soul that he or she wants.
Tanden is wildly more than “qualified.” She is fierce and well-elbowed, no doubt, but she is also brilliant and deep in the substance of the issues she would have to engage. Certainly, her expressed policies are not as progressive as my own. But the policies she would implement are the President’s, not hers. She would color those, of course, but with…
