All right. This is not like a huge win where we would throw a party and cheer, but we actually
got some good news, which is that Joe Biden's budget nominee to run the Office of Management
and Budget, Neera Tanden, has had to withdraw her nomination because of opposition. Now,
from the beginning, I said as we evaluated Joe Biden's selections for all sorts of different
cabinet and other positions, Neera Tanden is a bad pick. Neera Tanden was Joe Biden's worst pick, I
argued. And Joe Biden selected Neera Tanden to run the Office of Management and Budget. It was pretty
clear early on that there would be opposition, not just from many Republicans, but possibly even from
some Democrats. And indeed, that opposition from both Democratic and Republican senators
made it clear that she was unlikely to be able to get confirmed. Now, the reason let me say I
want to say this, although it's good that she's not going to go forward and get confirmed, the
reason why most of the Republican in some of the Democratic opposition didn't like her is kind of a
B.S. reason. And it's her controversial tweets in which she attacked all sorts of different
people. She's attacked in tweets, everybody from Bernie Sanders to many Republicans and others.
For me, the reason Neera Tanden was a bad pick was because as someone affiliated with the Center for
American Progress, she represented she think about all the things she didn't represent. Neera Tanden
didn't represent progressivism. Neera Tanden didn't represent independence from the most
corporate and establishment interests within the Democratic Party. She represented all of the worst
of Democratic Party politics and establishment centrist leaning, kowtowing to the money
sort of individual who you were going to put in charge of the budget. That was the source
of my opposition. I didn't care that Neera Tanden had said mean things about Bernie. I
didn't care about Neera Tanden or other tweets. The reason why so many Democrat Republicans and
even some Democrats like Joe Manchin said that they don't like Neera Tanden for this position
was mostly related to tweets where all sorts of different people who clearly didn't actually have
any idea what Neera Tanden was tweeting all along sort of decided to grandstand on the basis of,
oh, look at this tweet that Neera Tanden, look at that tweet that Neera Tanden sent. And ultimately
it became clear that Neera Tanden didn't have the votes. Joe, mansion of an important
centrist swing vote among Democrats in the Senate said that her, quote, overtly partizan statements
would have a toxic and detrimental impact on working relationships between Congress and the
Office of Management and Budget. Maine Republican Susan Collins also says that her, quote, past
actions demonstrated the kind of animosity Biden has pledged to transcend. And it became clear that
they weren't going to have the votes for her. So this is in a sense, funny, because on day one,
I mean, go back to my clip. The day after Neera Tanden was nominated, I said not only do I think
this is a bad nomination, it's not clear to me she can get confirmed because I believe there
will be opposition from Republicans and Democrats. That's exactly what happened. It was predictable.
So it's not a huge win, but it's a win in the sense that this was Biden's worst nominee
and she's not going to be in the position. And that's a good thing. The next question becomes,
who replaces Tanden? The front runner is believed to be Shalonda Young, a former staff director for
the House Appropriations Committee. And she's been actively pushed by members of the Congressional
Black Caucus, believed to be the replacement pick. I don't know much about Shalonda Young. We will
learn about Shalonda Young, if indeed she is the nominee. By the time you listen to today's show,
maybe she will already have been made the nominee. But as I said before, this is not,
you know. I don't know where this rant, like if you said Biden could have done covid relief
10 days in and Neera Tanden would be director of office, the Office of Management and Budget,
I might have said that's a fair trade. It would have been like Neera Tanden bad. But
I might have traded it if you got me covid relief really soon. And now we're still waiting on covid
relief. And it's March. It's a win. It's just not feeling like this is now the progressive
takeover of the Biden presidency. But I think if if you want to find something positive in this,
it would be that we can, as people to the left of Biden, have an impact on the Biden presidency,
although, again, the reason that this nomination tanked is partially because
Republicans didn't like her mean tweets, which is not exactly a progressive perspective, but
that is what it is. Neera Tanden, not moving forward and that I can be very glad about