So far so good on Joe Biden's cabinet picks. For the most part all appear to be competent and qualified, two words seldom associated with Trump's cabinet picks.
There are, however, two concerns I have with his choices. The first has to do with where he's getting them from. With the announcement that Deb Haaland of New Mexico will head the Department of the Interior, that makes three Democrats who are currently serving in the House who will be joining the administration in January.
While it's true that all three won reelection by comfortable margins and all three districts should be Democratic holds in a special election, temporarily at least Nancy Pelosi will only have 219 members in her caucus. That's cutting it pretty close if you ask me, especially given that Biden will need as many votes as possible to pass a Covid relief bill once he takes office.
But the second concern I have is over who he might pick to be his attorney general. So far the names being floated are former Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates, soon to be former Alabama Senator Doug Jones and current Circuit Court Judge Merrick Garland.
Yates obviously has the most relevant experience, having served as acting AG in the first month of the Trump administration before being fired for opposing the Muslim ban. She's already proven she knows how to stand up to power, a quality the last two attorney generals lacked, particularly William Barr, who has played the role of Tom Hagen to Trump's Don Corleone. Whether she can be confirmed in a Republican-controlled Senate remains to be seen.
Of the three choices, the one I would stay away from if I were Biden is Garland. For starters, I don't know why on Earth Garland would give up a lifetime appointment to the bench for what would likely be a four-year post, especially given that we still don't know if Biden will run for reelection in 2024.
But while Garland has worked as a prosecutor for the DOJ under Bill Clinton, choosing him would be problematic. Garland, you see, serves on the D.C. Circuit. His confirmation - all but a certainty - would leave a vacancy on that court, a vacancy that Mitch McConnell will not want Biden to fill. If you're thinking McConnell wouldn't dare deny Biden a chance to fill that spot, I would remind you that in the last two years of the Obama administration, McConnell blocked over a hundred judicial nominees, including the aforementioned Garland to the Supreme Court. In all, between January of 2015 and January of 2017, McConnell's Senate confirmed only two circuit court judges and 18 district court judges, the lowest total for any sitting president going back to Reagan.
It would be the height of naïveté for Biden to believe that McConnell won't resume his obstructionist tendencies once Trump leaves office. And keep in mind, should Garland have to step down before Biden gets sworn in - a distinct possibility - I wouldn't put it past old Turtle Face to confirm one more Trump nominee to fill the vacancy. Remember, even if Democrats flip both seats in the Georgia runoff this January, Republicans will still temporarily control the chamber until the 20th. How's that for a how'd'a do?
With that in mind, I would strongly suggest Biden look elsewhere for his attorney general. Garland may be a brilliant judge with impeccable credentials, but he's not worth the risk of losing a valuable member of one of the two most powerful Circuit Court of Appeals in the United States, the other being the Ninth Circuit where Democrats now hold a slim 16-13 lead.
And given the way in which a majority of Republicans flirted with the idea of overturning a free and fair election just because their guy didn't win, it wouldn't surprise me one bit if four years from now they pull a similar stunt. Should that happen, the country will need every able and competent judge and justice right where he or she is defending the homeland.
As the old saying goes, there's plenty of fish in the ocean. A politician as experienced and savvy as Biden ought to know that by now. If he doesn't, maybe he's not as smart as we thought he was.
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