Neera Tanden, the Democratic activist and President Biden’s pick to run the Office of Management and Budget, had her nomination pulled on Tuesday. Or rather, Biden “accepted” Tanden’s “request” to have her name withdrawn, according to a White House statement. Tomato, toe-mah-toe.
That’s too bad for her. But it’s a helpful lesson for everyone else: There are consequences to being a dirty online troll.
Tanden was immediately a controversial pick when Biden named her because everyone in Washington, D.C., has known her for years as a loud partisan who spits venom at Republicans and conservatives on both Twitter and on cable news. There is hardly a single Republican in Congress whom Tanden hasn’t publicly insulted. That means she was pretty much guaranteed not to get any Republican confirmation votes. But then, a Democrat, Joe Manchin of West Virginia, said he couldn’t support her either because, he said, “her overtly partisan statements will have a toxic and detrimental impact” on the relationship between Congress and the OMB.
True, when you have a history of calling people you’ll need to support you “criminally ignorant” and “corrupt,” it has a way of poisoning the water.
During her hearing, Tanden did apologize for the tweets, and she deleted 1,000 of them in advance. But no one could possibly believe those gestures were sincere. Tanden didn’t become a thoughtful pragmatist overnight, just in time for a confirmation hearing. She thought it was something she had to do, so she did it.
Tanden still has a future in Washington. People like her always do. And Biden said in his statement Tuesday that she would serve some role in his administration. It just won’t be as head of the OMB.
