Biden suffered nine nominees yanked from consideration in 2021

Despite the tense political climate and several high-profile defeats that suggest President Biden’s nominees are dropping quickly, his withdrawal rate is on par with the last three presidents, according to an analysis by The Washington Times. So far, Mr. Biden has withdrawn nine nominees in his first year, which has precedent. … The Washington Times stories: White House

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How to Transform a Massive Government Agency: Lessons From a Trump Appointee

Shortly after taking office as secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, Dr. Ben Carson recruited a retired finance and strategy expert to become the agency’s chief financial officer. Irving Dennis, appointed by President Donald Trump in late 2017, stepped into the job and quickly discovered the mess he inherited. Dennis spent 37 years at Ernst & Young, a major accounting firm. He would use that private-sector experience to fix HUD. In a new book, “Transforming a Federal Agency: Management Lessons from HUD’s Financial Reconstruction,” Dennis recounts…

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How Do Democrats Recover From This?

Every Democratic activist, strategist, and lawmaker in America has spent at least a brief moment this fall staring at the ceiling in desperation, probably thinking to him- or herself: Something’s gotta give. Democrats were already facing an inconvenient truth going into next year’s elections: The incumbent president’s party usually gets smoked in the midterms. But they keep getting more bad news. The first test of their post-Trump coalition, in Virginia and New Jersey last month, was a major disappointment for the party. Joe Biden has become a deeply unpopular president.…

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Fauci on What COVID Could Look Like One Year From Now

It was bad enough that the Omicron variant shattered hopes of a normal holiday season, or at least what passes for normal in year two of the pandemic. Now it feels like we’re fated to live with COVID-19 in perpetuity, forever worried that when one variant fades, another will quickly take its place, that we’ll never, once and for all, throw out our face masks. Anthony Fauci is more upbeat. No, we won’t wipe out the coronavirus, but we will reach a point where it’s tamed, he told me in…

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U.S., G-7 allies demand Russia pull back from Ukraine border, warn of ‘massive’ response

Foreign ministers of the Group of Seven nations meeting Sunday in England issued a blunt warning to Russia to draw down forces that have massed on Ukraine’s border, accusing Moscow of trying to intimidate its smaller neighbor and vowing strong joint action if Russia does not relent. The G-7 industrial … The Washington Times stories: White House

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