Dem
47
GOP
53
There are many people who are more qualified to lead the Bureau of Labor Statistics than E.J. Antoni. Any faculty member in the Department of Economics at the University of Chicago, for example. OK, OK, we hear you. The Chicago school of economics is a bit controversial, so any random assistant professor of economics at one of the top three schools, Harvard, MIT, and Stanford. Any of the eight people who are currently serving as associate commissioners of the Bureau. Just about any small business owner. (V). (Z). (L). (A). The staff dachshunds. Maybe even the staff mathematician.
There are (or, really, were) two problems with Antoni's candidacy. First, he doesn't have the chops to assume such an important job at this point in his career. It is true, he does have a Ph.D. in economics. However, it was conferred only a few years ago, and from a university that is not exactly among the elites in that discipline (Northern Illinois University). Further, anyone who's been to grad school knows that pretty much anyone who can jump through the hoops can get hooded. That's why a person needs to produce something useful AFTER they graduate, to show they're not just a hoop-jumper. Antoni hasn't done that.
That leads us to the second problem. Part of the reason that Antoni doesn't have a useful record of publications is that he hasn't had all that much time to build up his résumé. But the other part is that he is clearly guided by politics first, and by the data/scholarly ethics second. To the extent that he HAS produced anything, it's been highly partisan stuff, and stuff that violates the old Sherlock Holmes maxim about not twisting facts to suit theories. BLS Commissioner is one of those jobs where the person really needs to be scrupulously nonpartisan, so people will trust the numbers and believe that nobody is putting their thumb on the scale. Antoni is not that kind of person.
And actually, there is also a third problem... maybe. Antoni was present at, and potentially a participant in, the 1/6 insurrection. He also has a fondness for, well, Nazi artifacts. The Trump administration does not always have an issue with people who have these characteristics, but maybe they are a bit too much for someone who also has other liabilities. It's hard to say.
In any case, Antoni's nomination was withdrawn yesterday. He will remain at his job at The Heritage Foundation, producing think pieces that require little actual thinking. A replacement nominee is "forthcoming," according to the White House.
There are really only two possibilities here: (1) GOP senators communicated to Trump that Antoni didn't have the votes for confirmation, or (2) one or more grown-ups in the administration persuaded Trump that Antoni would not be able to do the job properly. Since nearly everyone in Washington, besides Trump, knows enough to keep such things under wraps, so as to avoid embarrassing anyone, it's not clear if it's #1, #2, or both #1 and #2. Maybe that will eventually come out, maybe it won't.
We will soon see what kind of person Trump taps as the replacement. Will it be another partisan hack, or will it just be a partisan? The latter option is not ideal, but it's probably the best that can be hoped for from this administration, and is certainly better than the former option. (Z)