Patterico's Pontifications

12/8/2021

Saule Omarova Nomination for Comptroller Withdrawn, Media Fumes

Filed under: General — JVW @ 1:37 pm



[guest post by JVW]

Yesterday afternoon, Saule Omarova asked the Biden White House to withdraw her nomination as head of the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, to which President Biden had tabbed her back in September, but her nomination had been controversial owing to some — shall we say — idiosyncratic views about the efficacy of certain economic policies of the former Soviet Union. When the White House made the formal nomination — in the immediate aftermath of the Democrats’ disastrous showing in the 2019 elections — they failed to allay fears that she would be a firm advocate for central planning even among Senate Democrats, and subsequently five Democrat Senators announced that they could not support her, thus bringing her candidacy to a screeching stop.

The failure of a high-profile Biden nominee, owing to her ability to assuage moderate Democrats that she isn’t merely a Kazakhstani-born version of Elizabeth Warren, is to our feeble and incurious media naturally the fault of the GOP. David Harsanyi at NRO catches the media unsurprisingly prevaricating about why the Omarova nomination failed:

[. . .] NPR claimed in a tweet that Omarova withdrew her nomination “after facing personal attacks about being born in the former Soviet Union.” The New York Times says that “lobbyists and Republicans painted her as a communist because she was born in the Soviet Union.”

These are lies. And neither outlet provides a single quote to back the assertion that Senate Republicans had personally attacked the Cornell professor over being “born in the Soviet Union.” Perhaps some of this confusion hinges on the fact that many in the media have tried to create the impression that Omarova is some kind of political refugee who escaped Soviet tyranny to come to the United States. That too was untrue, as it was happenstance that the exchange student found herself stranded in Wisconsin when the Soviet Union fell. She never defected.

Despite the claims of bozos like Dana Milbank, the media has in no way, shape, or form been harder on the Biden Administration than they were on the Trump Administration. And, in what should be an obvious corollary, the GOP opposition has not really behaved more viciously, partisanly, or unreasonably than Democrats did four years ago. Joe Biden, who appears to be mostly subcontracting his administration’s agenda out to the Bernard Sanders wing of the party, could have chosen among dozens — probably hundreds — of qualified center-left Democrats for this position. Why he saw the need to pick a law school academic (albeit one who had worked in private practice and in prior administrations) prone to musing about how for all of its gulags at least the USSR didn’t have a gender pay gap and flirting with the idea that perhaps the Federal Reserve should simply take over all bank deposits in the U.S. is only a mystery if you let yourself believe that he is truly making the decisions that go out under his name. Hopefully now Team Biden has determined that they have done as much as they can or should to placate the anti-capitalists in their party, and they can focus on being the centrist Democrats they claimed to be back in 2020.

– JVW

San Francisco Restaurant Owners Who Ejected Armed Police Officers Now Eating Crow

Filed under: General — Patterico @ 8:29 am



The feel-good story of the week:

Over the weekend, Hilda and Jesse, a new all-day breakfast spot in North Beach, refused to serve three members of the San Francisco Police Department, as now reported by multiple media outlets, and even Fox. The restaurant’s owners originally posted on Instagram, saying that on Friday, December 3, they seated three police officers in uniform, but that “our staff felt uncomfortable with the presence of their multiple weapons,” and that they “politely asked them to leave.” Chief of police William Scott responded on Twitter, saying he encourages officers to support local businesses and respects the wishes of the restaurant, even though he found them “discouraging and personally disappointing.”

How did that work out for them? Shockingly, for once the social media backlash ran in the correct direction:

The restaurant received a social media storm: As of publication time, even though it only opened a little more than a month ago, Hilda and Jesse has received nearly a thousand reviews on Yelp, with a one-star rating average. The page is currently frozen due to unusual activity. The owners subsequently apologized on Instagram, saying “we made a mistake” and “handled this badly,” and apologized to the SFPD. In an interview with ABC7, co-owner Rachel Sillcocks said, “It’s not about the fact that we are anti police. It’s about the fact that we do not allow weapons in our restaurant. We were uncomfortable, and so we politely asked them to leave. It has nothing to do with the fact that they were officers, and everything to do with the fact that they were carrying guns.”

I found the reference to “the fact that we are anti police” interesting, but never mind that. My question is: if this was about the safety of your employees, and not about preening . . . why did you boast about it on Instagram?

Lady, you thought you were going to be applauded for this. After all, your restaurant is located in San Francisco. But apparently, a city tired of smash-and-grabs and a defense attorney for a D.A. had a different thought.

Gee. That’s too bad.

The apology is insincere. I will not be eating at this place. And I am not a big fan of mob tactics, including social media mob tactics. That said, if a mob is going to form, I am heartened (and surprised) to see a social media mob with common sense.


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