When the Democrats get caught doing not as they say, they often ignore it and act like hypocrites. But some “offenses” they’ve made so grave that they can’t get away with it. Their latest likely victim is Neera Tanden, who The New York Times suggests will be “First Cabinet-Level Casualty of the Twitter Age?”
Biden nominated Tanden for Director of the Office of Management and Budget. She has a staunch left-wing background. She served as policy adviser for the Clinton White House, advised Hillary Clinton as senator and presidential candidate, served in the Obama administration, and most recently, served as president of far-left think tank the Center for American Progress.
What’s holding up her nomination is things she’s tweeted about four senators, for which she has since apologized. Three moderates in the Senate, Susan Collins (R-Maine), Joe Manchin (D-WV) and Mitt Romney (R-Utah), have said they will not vote to confirm her for that reason, derailing her nomination since the Democrats need at least one of their votes.
What’s interesting is most people wouldn’t think much about her tweets. A few years ago, nobody would have objected to them. About Collins, Tanden tweeted, “She is the worst,” "a fake defender of Roe v. Wade," and accused her of "flat out deception" for her vote to confirm Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh. About Murkowski’s praise of Republican efforts to cut corporate taxes, she tweeted, “No offense, but this sounds like you’re high on your own supply. You know, we know, and everyone knows this is all just garbage. Just stop.” Another tweet directed at Ted Cruz said, “vampires have more heart than Ted Cruz.” She called Mitch McConnell “Moscow Mitch” and “Voldemort,” a reference to the evil dark Wizard in the Harry Potter series.
Bernie Sanders (I-VT) has previously confronted Tanden on her past tweets about him and his progressive allies and has not indicated yet which way he will vote. She tweeted in 2017 that Russia helped Sanders in the presidential election. Sanders has been very critical of Tanden for allowing her think tank CAP to accept $33 million in corporate donations, including roughly $5.5 million from Walmart and $800,000 from Facebook.
Many of us tweet things similar to Tanden’s every day and say even worse behind closed doors. Nothing happens. No one really believes her tweets were atrocious.
The Democrats' vicious attacks on the right for free speech are backfiring. Trump got away with his sarcastic tweets because the right supports free speech. The three moderates who oppose Tanden aren’t bound by free speech principles. It’s not conservatives who oppose her for her tweets; they oppose her for her far-left positions. They’re not hypocrites.
The Founding Fathers would not have been able to serve in office if they were held up to the Democrats’ new standards for free speech. Thomas Jefferson once said, "The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is it's [sic] natural manure." Patrick Henry declared, "Give me liberty, or give me death!" in a famous speech requesting Virginia troops for the Revolutionary War. Thomas Paine said, “Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph.” George Washington said, “Our cruel and unrelenting enemy leaves us only the choice of brave resistance, or the most abject submission. We have, therefore to resolve to conquer or die.” John Adams wrote, “I am well aware of the Toil and Blood and Treasure that it will cost us to maintain this Declaration, and support and defend these States.”
It’s hilarious reading the left’s attempts to defend Tanden’s tweets. Out of one side of their mouth, they denounced President Trump constantly for his tweets. The left-wingers who control Facebook, Twitter etc. are constantly banning conservatives for the slightest things. Out of the other side of their mouth, they sound like conservative free speech advocates — it feels like I’m reading my own writing — defending her. Michael Hiltzik at The Los Angeles Times wrote an entire column defending Tanden, saying “such language is fairly standard for a Twitter account.” But he’s a complete hypocrite. He wrote an article defending Twitter for banning Trump. He’s fine with Twitter canceling Trump over what he labels “lies, vulgarity and hate.” If Trump’s tweets fit this description, why don’t Tanden’s?
Tanden wasn’t the only collateral damage. A Washington Post reporter — no conservative — who showed Tandem’s tweet about Murkowski to the senator was viciously attacked. The photo of Seung Min Kim showing Murkowski the tweet went viral. One person told her over email using profanity to go back to China. Someone else labeled Kim a “snitch” for supposedly messing up “another POC nomination on behalf of whites.”
What should happen is the Democrats acknowledge they’ve gone too far with politically correct censorship and publicly adopt a policy opposing the cancel culture. But they won’t. They have a pattern of throwing their own under the bus when their contradictory policies collide. They’ve made so much progress silencing conservative political speech through the fake offense method that they’re not going to give it up to save some of their own.
Shalanda Young, nominated by Biden as deputy director of OMB, is rumored to be replacing Tanden as the nominee. We’ll probably find out this week whether Tanden is withdrawn or how the Senate votes on her. This hole is just going to get deeper. Almost everyone has tweeted something in their past that wouldn’t pass the Democrats’ new standards. Who’s next?