Posted on February 24, 2021 by John Hinderaker

Another Appalling Biden Nominee

Joe Biden has nominated Debra Haaland to be Secretary of the Interior. Why? She is a Congresswoman from New Mexico and has some Native American heritage. I assume she is fully compliant with the Democrats’ far-left checklist; otherwise, she has no apparent qualifications for the job.

Haaland’s nomination came before the Senate Energy Committee yesterday and today. She did not perform well. To put it charitably, she seemed like a nice lady who has little idea what the Interior Department does and no knowledge that would equip her to make decisions on critical issues that would come before her as Secretary.

Here she displays her understanding of pipeline economics:


Here, she has no idea whether transporting oil by pipeline is safer than by train or truck. Spoiler: it is.


Nevertheless, she wouldn’t commit as to whether the Department of the Interior should try to retroactively do away with existing, fully-permitted pipelines. It is hard to tell whether she is being cagey, or just has no idea what she is talking about:

The Biden administration wants to do away with the domestic oil and gas industry, one of the strongest and most important components of America’s economy. Is Haaland on board with this agenda? It seems like an important question that goes to the heart of her prospective duties as Secretary of the Interior. But she is in such a fog (or so disingenuous) that she can’t figure out whether suppressing domestic production will lead to an increase in imports from other countries. Nor does she know–not having been briefed!–whether those countries have environmental standards equal to ours:


Is Debra Haaland grotesquely unqualified to be Secretary of the Interior in terms of both experience and intellect, or is she a far-left-winger bumbling her way through a confirmation hearing on purpose, so she can unleash her leftist agenda on the rest of us? Probably some of both.

This exchange is consistent with either interpretation. Haaland has said that revenues lost to public schools due to shutting down oil and gas revenues should be made up by selling marijuana and taxing such sales. One could say that her position–which she refused to disavow before the Senate Committee-perfectly sums up today’s Democratic Party. Who needs industry, hard work and actual productivity when you can just get high? And how could anyone see a problem in using marijuana sales to fund public education?

Debra Haaland is, on the most charitable interpretation, a pathetic Cabinet nominee. But Joe Manchin, the Ruler of All Things in the Senate these days, has announced that he will vote to confirm her. So good luck to our new Secretary of the Interior. She is going to need it.

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