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United States Senator is a very important job

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We discussed the general issue in our election pod, but I’m encouraged by this because it suggests that Biden knows what he’s doing:

Joe Biden’s team is considering an informal ban on naming Democratic U.S. senators to the Cabinet if he wins — which would effectively block Elizabeth Warren for Treasury or Bernie Sanders for Labor — people familiar with the discussions tell Axios.

The big picture: Biden, if he wins, is bracing for bruising legislative battles on day one, starting with the next phase of coronavirus relief. Many advisers don’t think he can afford to lose a single vote in the Senate if Democrats hold a slim majority.

  • Biden himself hasn’t made a decision on a potential Senate ban, with his efforts focused on winning on Tuesday, the sources say.

The intrigue: An informal ban could also be an elegant way of tamping down campaigns to place progressive senators in top Cabinet roles by reminding the movement of the priority around enacting legislation.

  • Warren and Sanders both come from an unusual construct — blue states with Republican governors who’d be empowered to fill vacancies.
  • There might be a way for a Democratic supermajority in the Massachusetts legislature to force Gov. Charlie Baker to appoint a Democrat.
  • Vermont Gov. Phil Scott said on Friday that if Sanders joins a potential Biden administration, he would consider a “more left-leaning type of independent that would obviously caucus with the Democrat” to replace him.

I’m not wild about taking out two of the most prominent leaders of the progressive wing of the Senate to give Sanders and Warren jobs that could be done as well or better by other progressives with more administrative experience to begin with. And the fact that both Vermont and Massachusetts have Republican governors makes it even worse. Every Senate seat is precious, and all special elections carry risk (as we have learned in Warren’s own state.) And even if Baker and Scott can be forced or persuaded to nominate someone who caucuses with Democrats, we don’t need Bernie or Warren to be replaced by some Feinstein-like below-replacement-level type.

We go through this when vice presidential selection comes up too, but basically too many people just don’t put enough importance on having good legislators and are too focused on the executive branch. Bernie and Warren have extremely important jobs they’re very good at and I don’t see what the rush to move them into a temporary administrative job is.

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