Is there any political organization in history that likes losing as much as the Republican Party?

Over the last several weeks, the saga of Neera Tanden has played out on the national stage. Joe Biden nominated the left-wing conspiracy theorist to head the Office of Management and Budget, one of the most powerful agencies in Washington (see Joe Biden Wants a Wild Conspiracy Theorist as OMB Head). For a time, her confirmation looked certain after the GOP lost both Senate run-offs in Georgia, but Joe Manchin (D-WV) blew that up recently by announcing he’d oppose her.

That’s left Democrats scrambling, but it’s also served as a very useful litmus test on the right as establishment flacks have rushed to her defense.

Neera Tanden is smart, experienced and qualified to lead OMB. I hope she's confirmed. We should always remember that there will be a Republican President in the future who will want to have his/her nominees confirmed.https://t.co/2P1amqcIa6

— Jeff Flake (@JeffFlake) February 20, 2021

Can’t you just feel the principles permeate from that tweet? I mean, what’s more conservative than simping for someone who covered up sexual harassment, peddled fake Russia conspiracy theories, and once punched a staffer. It’s almost like Trump has completely broken these peoples’ brains to the point where they are unable to even keep the most basic tenets of what they once claimed to believe in.

I particularly love Flake’s reasoning that a future Republican president will want his nominees confirmed. That’s true. What’s also true is that a past Republican president wanted all his nominees confirmed without a political fight as well. Democrats instead turned every single appointment in a partisan food-fight, including accusing some of them of being Russian assets. How much of a soy boy does one have to be to think that Democrats will somehow act better next time around if Republicans just fold to them now?

But while you’d expect Flake to have the worst of takes no matter the situation, Hugh Hewitt, who was at least somewhat Trump friendly, chimed in to lecture Republicans on forgiving Tanden and confirming her.

Establishment conservatives: “How did we get Trump?”

Me: https://t.co/fhO8jL4pCB pic.twitter.com/oRUSBqCj6J

— Bonchie (@bonchieredstate) February 20, 2021

Forgiveness has nothing to do this. Every Republican in the Senate can forgive her, but they should absolutely not confirm her. I honestly have no idea what Hugh is thinking with that article.

As I said above, this is how the establishment got Trump, and to be sure, they deserved every bit of destruction he visited on the feckless GOP that preceded him. If a “Republican” can’t even be counted on to oppose someone as lacking as Neera Tanden, then what exactly is the point of being an opposition party? Why not just fold up shop and hit the cocktail circuit full time? Republican voters are sick of this stuff. It’s why they rebelled in 2016, and it’s why they will do so again in 2024 despite the best laid plans of the establishment.

And while I get that there’s a contingent within the GOP that thinks playing nice during the Biden years will earn them some kind of reciprocation in the future, you’d have to be an absolute idiot to believe that. Further, opposing Tanden should have nothing to do with trying to preserve decorum or buying good will. She’s a terrible pick who should be nowhere near the levers of government power, much less an agency as consequential as the OMB. She should be opposed at all costs, and any Republican who breaks rank on this should be cast aside with prejudice.