WaPo white knight Dana Milbank defends Neera Tanden in piece 'so terrible it should be classified as simping'

Neera Tanden’s confirmation as OMB Director hasn’t been going too well. Things are bound to go wrong when you’ve insulted many of the senators whose “yes” votes you need, and, you know, when you’re an all-around toxic individual.

But even as she goes down in flames, Tanden can at least take comfort in knowing that she still has ride-or-die friends in the media.

Friends like the Washington Post’s Dana Milbank:

What terrible things did Neera Tanden tweet? The truth, writes Dana @Milbank https://t.co/9rsOvEtKhV

— Washington Post Opinions (@PostOpinions) February 25, 2021

Milbank concludes:

We all want healing. We all want unity. But it won’t happen as long as the Party of Trump assigns Democrats sole responsibility for civility, while using President Biden’s admirable talk of unity as a cudgel. Collins moralized about Tanden representing “the kind of animosity that President Biden has pledged to transcend.” In other words, apology not accepted.

And it’s not just Tanden. Senate Republicans this week teed off on Biden’s interior secretary nominee, Deb Haaland, another woman of color, over her 2020 tweet saying that “Republicans don’t believe in science.” Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.), who has cast doubt on the human role in climate change, called the tweet “concerning.”

No, senator. What’s “concerning” is that, after four years of excusing lies, racism, vulgarity, lawbreaking and self-dealing by the Trump administration, your idea of healing is to defeat Biden nominees for speaking the truth.

Excellent article!!!

— Karen Mann (@ksl_mann) February 25, 2021

It would be easier to judge her tweets' truthfulness if she hadn't deleted them. But even of those she did not delete, this is false. Tanden was a big dossier defender. Sometimes claimed it was true; sometimes adopted can't-be-proven false standard popular with Resistance. https://t.co/HYqhOKL5Z8 pic.twitter.com/hwMEWlaXYz

— Byron York (@ByronYork) February 25, 2021

She questioned the legitimacy of a free and fair election. That is verboten, right?

"Why would hackers hack in unless they could change results? What’s the point?”

— James Houston (@Atticus1971) February 25, 2021

She tweeted that the real winner of the 2016 election was Hillary, but that Russian hackers invaded the voting systems in key swing states and converted Hillary votes to Trump, which is how he won.

But I guess some deranged conspiracy theories qualify as “the truth” at the Post: https://t.co/8A3mHzTtx8

— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) February 25, 2021

The truth to include:

– Russia hacked vote totals

– Anthony Kennedy participated in an elaborate Russian bribery scheme

– Every other nutty Russiagate conspiracy theory

Tanden is a lunatic unfit for public service. If Biden really is all in on her, he’s nuts. https://t.co/b1iQwMLEGu

— Luke Thompson (@ltthompso) February 25, 2021

“The truth” evidently means something very different to Dana Milbank than it does to the rest of us.