Republicans don’t like Biden’s nominee for comptroller of the currency, who’s a banking regulator.
They wouldn’t like anyone Biden would nominate for any government position, but that job is closer than most to the beating heart of capitalism, and therefore more likely to tickle their sensibilities.
Sen. Pat Toomey (R-PA), the ranking Republican member of the Senate Banking Committee, is especially touchy about this nomination because the nominee has suggested possibly undoing legislation he co-authored. Which is more or less the political equivalent of an editor telling an author, “You wrote a lousy book.”
Her name is Saule Omarova (bio here). That gives them a foreign-sounding name to snipe at. She was born and raised in the former Soviet Union, which gives him a big fat juicy target. She emigrated to America 30 years ago, and at this point, she’s an American lawyer, academic, and “well-regarded expert on financial regulation.” Progressive Democrats see in her “a regulator who would bring a tough approach to policing banks after years of soft-touch supervision.”
The Republicans — and banking lobby — don’t like that. Policy ideas are always fair game in a confirmation hearing, but most presidential appointees espouse policies the out-party disagrees with but get confirmed anyway, and that’s what winning or losing elections is all about. Presidents are entitled to implement the policies voters elected them to pursue, and appoint officials to carry them out.
But it wasn’t Sen. Toomey who red-baited Omarova. That was Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA), who said, “I don’t mean this with any disrespect, but I don’t know whether to call you professor or comrade.”
Of course it’s intentionally disrespectful, and Kennedy deserved to have it flung back in his face, if not shoved up his ass.
Omarova kept her cool, and calmly shoved it up his ass.
“I’m not a communist,” she said. “I do not subscribe to that ideology. I could not choose where I was born. I did not, I do not remember joining any Facebook group that subscribes to that ideology. I came to this country. I’m proud to be an American.” She also described how her family was victimized by Stalin’s regime.
Kennedy, born in 1951, graduated from high school and reached draft age in 1969, at the height of the Vietnam War. He never served in the military — he sat out the war as a college student — so he probably should tread lightly with questioning other people’s Americanism. (Full disclosure: As a Vietnam veteran, I’m biased about people of that age group who could’ve served but chose not to.)
There are a couple of other things wrong with this, too. One, given the GOP’s ugly red-baiting history, today’s Republicans probably shouldn’t be reviving that practice or reminding people of that history. Two, name-calling is never an adequate substitute for debating policy on an intellectual level.
If a Republican senator votes against confirming her because he disagrees with her policy views, I’m fine with that if it’s supported by some kind of reasoning. From my perspective, what it boils down to is, if ya gotta call ’em a commie, you don’t have an argument.
Kennedy already has a track record of being something of a jerk. Going around calling people “communists” because they favor more stringent banking regulation than he does only embellishes that reputation.
And it’s not like Republicans’ laissez-faire ideas about financial regulation have proved to be right; the GOP gave us (or, I should say, inflicted on us) the savings and loan scandals of the 1980s and the housing crash, financial crisis, and Great Recession of the 2000s, both of which directly resulted from too little oversight of the financial industry by Republican administrations.
When you’re wrong, you’re wrong, and calling someone who disagrees with your bad calls “comrade” doesn’t make you right. It makes you repulsive.
Related story: Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) falsely calls Omarova a “communist.” Read story here.
Photos: Above, Prof. Omarova; below, Sen. Kennedy.
Melania Knavs Trump’s father, Viktor Knavs, was a card carrying member of the League of the Communist party in Solvenia.
As we all know, in 2016, Melania Knavs Trump rose to become First Lady of the USA.
Clutching pearls and following red baiting standards what about the connections to communists again?
Or does it apply only and unequally to one party rather than a standard policy for all?
Where and why were those silent red baiters hiding before, during and after the 2016 election? Crickets 🙂
She was only put in charge of regulating White House teacups, so her family commie connections weren’t as big a deal.
Someone with a thesis from MSU is titled “Karl Marx’s Economic Analysis and the Theory of Revolution in ‘The Capital” certainly knows their Marxist theory and should expect some pushback from Senators as well as the administration nominating the candidate. While the empire collapsed and she got out it would appear she was prepared to go with the status quo as a good party member.
Give us a break. Writing a thesis on Marxism doesn’t make a graduate student a Marxist. That’s absurd. Communists killed and imprisoned members of her family, and you think she’s one of them? Really?