With two other Cabinet nominations under GOP fire and a massive Covid aid package coming up, Democrats need rock-solid unity.
Joe Biden spent lots of time talking about unity and bipartisanship in Washington over the last two months. But at the moment there’s a more urgent imperative: keeping Democrats in line. The flailing nomination of Neera Tanden to be Biden’s budget chief shows that a single wayward Democrat can turn any single vote into a knife fight on the Senate floor. With two other Cabinet nominations under GOP fire and a massive Covid aid package coming up, Biden and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer need rock-solid unity to ensure the opening months of Biden’s administration don’t get derailed by intraparty feuds. In theory, Democratic control of Washington should allow quick, unilateral approval of Biden’s early priorities. Democrats control 50 Senate seats, allowing them to confirm nominees and pass a coronavirus package under budget reconciliation without Republican votes. But despite Biden’s close relationships with senators in both parties, it rarely goes that smoothly. Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W. Va.) goes his own way and Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) rarely tells party leaders her stance ahead of time. That dynamic ramps up pressure on the White House to help Schumer keep his caucus together. If Republicans can generate lockstep opposition to Deb Haaland’s nomination to lead the Interior Department or Xavier Becerra’s ascension to Health and Human Services secretary, more tough battles lie ahead. “We have to have every single person voting in agreement,” said Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.), who serves on Schumer’s leadership team. “And we have a very diverse set of people that represent very small states to big states.” Biden campaigned as the guy that could make progress with Republicans. And it looked like he’d have to until two shocking wins in Georgia gave Democrats the Senate last month. But today’s Republican Party isn’t the same one he served with for 36 years. And Biden has alienated some Republicans in the early days of his presidency by pressing to pass $1.9 trillion in coronavirus aid on a party-line vote rather than working toward a bipartisan compromise. That has forced him and Schumer to navigate their party through internal disagreements over key components of the Covid package, like who should receive stimulus checks and how to handle progressives’ push to raise the minimum wage. Not to mention the need to put up 50 Democratic votes on tough nominees, since Biden and Schumer can’t rely on Republicans to bail them out. As Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) put it: “In a 50-50 Senate, anybody can pick a fight.” Or as Sen.
