Dem
51
GOP
49
Republicans sue Joe Biden all the time. Heck, Texas AG Ken Paxton (R) is practically a full-time plaintiff in [Right-wing Organization] vs. Joe Biden suits. But Paxton isn't the Republican who is going to make trouble in response to Tuesday's news, which is that the President has tapped Deputy Secretary of Labor Julie Su to succeed outgoing Secretary of Labor Marty Walsh.
Although there was some lobbying for other candidates, Su is a fairly obvious pick. She is, first of all, the next person below Walsh in the hierarchy. Further, Asian-American groups have been pushing for more representation in high-level positions in the administration, and in fact wanted Su to lead Labor in the first place. She's also quite lefty, even by standards of the Department of Labor, so the pick is additionally a nod to the Bernie wing of the Party. And, of course, she has a solid résumé. Best known in legal circles for winning the El Monte Thai Garment Slavery Case, she also worked in high-profile labor-law-enforcement positions in California state government.
That said, during Su's time running the California Department of Labor (her final posting before decamping to Washington), there was a sizable amount of pandemic-related fraud. We're talking something on the order of $30 billion. Su herself has acknowledged the problem: "There is no sugar-coating the reality, California did not have sufficient security measures in place to prevent this level of fraud." How much of this is her responsibility? We haven't the faintest idea, though we do know that fraud was epidemic during the pandemic. Or maybe it was pandemic during the epidemic. In any event, in the absence of better information, it's hard to interpret this as a sign of particular incompetence.
Still, Republicans in Congress have latched onto this issue, and are rallying against Su's confirmation. Rep. Kevin Kiley (R-CA), for example, has spent much time carping about the fraud, while also decreeing that Su oversaw the "most destructive labor policies in decades." Exactly what that means, or exactly what the evidence is for such an assertion, somehow hasn't come up in Kiley's various media hits.
Of course, every time Biden nominates someone to a top job, particularly when that person is a woman or a person of color, Republicans claim the sky is falling and behave as if the person is a reincarnation of Charles Manson or Idi Amin. They've cried wolf so many times, and with so little restraint, that you can never know when they've brought up something legitimate and serious.
Of course, the real question is not what we know or think, it's whether Su's Republican opponents can win one or two Democrats or pseudo-Democrats in the Senate over to their point of view. When she was approved to her current post, it was a party-line, 50-47 vote. Until Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) returns to work, it takes just one Joe Manchin (D-WV) or Kyrsten Sinema to torpedo the nomination. And even when the Pennsylvanian is back in the saddle, two defections will do the job. Obviously, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) will count heads and will only bring the nomination up for a vote if it's going to be confirmed. And so, don't be too terribly surprised if, a few weeks from now, Su announces that she is honored to have been nominated, but that she's decided this is not the right fit for her and that she's decided to pursue other opportunities.
One remark on Fetterman is worth making. Back in the old days, when senators prided themselves on being members of the world's greatest deliberative body, they had vigorous debates but still were on good terms with the other party. Then they would have handled Fetterman's temporary absence differently. Back then, a senator who was unable to vote on something due to being sick, out of town, or something, would make an agreement with a senator from the other side of the aisle to not show up to vote, to balance things out. Then sometime in the future, the senator who couldn't come in for the vote would return the favor when the shoe was on the other foot. This made life much easier for both parties since it didn't change the results of any votes and didn't force senators to show up in circumstances when that was personally difficult (e.g., skipping the funeral of a close relative to vote on a confirmation). Those days are long gone. Everything either party can do to punish members of the other one is considered fair game now. (Z)