Growing intrigue over a trio of controversial presidential picks is also underscoring the power of individual senators such as Democrat Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Republican Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, when the partisan balance is so evenly divided.
While Biden has seen blue-chip national security selections such as Antony Blinken as secretary of state and Lloyd Austin at the Pentagon installed, the focus on nominees whose portfolios touch on some of the most sensitive domestic political issues is bringing the confirmation process to a contentious crescendo.
Another bruising hearing is looming on Tuesday, for interior secretary nominee Deb Haaland, whose opposition to fossil fuels has GOP members branding her as extreme, in a showdown that could also prove uncomfortable for moderate Democrats.
It’s not at all unusual for new presidents to run into trouble with some nominees — or even to see several potential Cabinet members fall. Blocking a pick is one easy way for senators to flex their power and signal to a new White House that they can’t be taken for granted. And the policy clashes clouding the confirmation hopes of candidates such as Haaland and Tanden are quite predictable, since they mirror the chasms between the parties.
But when a president has a reasonable governing majority in the Senate, confirmations become easier. If Democrats had a handful of seats to spare, for instance, a senator such as Manchin, who must constantly judge the winds in his ultra-conservative state of West Virginia, could be given a pass.
But when nominations depend on a party-line vote and a tiebreaker cast by Vice President Kamala Harris, Democratic leaders can’t offer any political cover — at least without some defections from GOP ranks.
For now, the problem concerns individual Cabinet nominees — whose defeat would sting for Biden and dent the bodywork of his governing machine. But in months to come, when it comes to sweeping and electorally radioactive issues such as climate change and immigration, his entire presidency will be on the line.
While the situation is fraught now, it is not out of the question that an illness, incapacitation or even death among elderly senators could erase his governing majority for good.
A nomination on the brink
Tanden’s struggles are characteristic of nominees who have issues stemming from their own political vulnerabilities but who also fall victim to wider political forces beyond their individual fates.
Still, Tanden, the president of the liberal think tank Center for American Progress, is in the slightly unique position of seeing her support fray on the right and the left — a scenario that…
Read More: Mounting confirmation battle sends warning sign to Biden