The ‘Biden Team’ is risk-averse, but capable and ready

The almost complete top tier of the incoming Biden administration gets a generous A-minus.

With an exception or so, it’s an impressively qualified and experienced team that should work well together. It’s diverse, keeping the candidate’s commitment, though at times this is emphasized too much over the high caliber of the appointees.

There are few fresh faces; as Washington Post columnist David Ignatius points out, while conflict-averse there’s not much vision. There are times when creative tension can produce more innovative policies.

But after Trump — and with the bitter political polarization in Washington — some order, even relative calm, may not be such a bad idea for now.

The economic team, on paper, is as good as those assembled in the Clinton and Obama administrations. Few have come with as stellar credentials as Janet Yellen for Treasury Secretary and Cecilia Rouse as chair of the Council of Economic Advisers.

On paper, the foreign policy team, with a way to go to reach the gold standard of the George H.W. Bush advisers, is still first rate, with Tony Blinken at State, Jake Sullivan as the National Security Adviser and Avril Haines at National Intelligence. Few have had a more impressive debut than United Nations Secretary-designate Linda Thomas-Greenfield.

Biden has assembled a White House staff of confidants that meets any competence test and should collaborate well.

Two nominees — Neera Tanden for director of the Office of Management and Budget and Lloyd Austin for Defense — are qualified but generating controversy.

Tanden, smarter on policy than politics, is getting flak from Republican senators, like Ohio’s Rob Portman, a former OMB director, for being too political. Four years ago, Portman supported Tea Party Congressman Mick Mulvaney for the post.

The flap over Austin, who retired as an Army general four years ago, centers on the requirement that a Defense chief must be at least seven years out of the military. It has been waived only twice — for the great George C. Marshall in 1950 and for Jim Mattis four years ago as a hedge against Donald Trump. That’s not necessary with Biden, but Bill Cohen, a former Defense Secretary and once a Republican senator, makes a convincing case why a waiver should be granted to Austin.

To avoid embarrassing defeats on these nominees, Biden will have to use valuable chits.

The most disappointing selection was Ohio Congresswoman Marcia Fudge for Secretary of Housing and Urban Developent. For one, it leaves House Speaker Nancy Pelosi with one less vote, while the vacancy is being filled, in the important first few months next year. Biden should have persuaded Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms to take that post.

Two nominees that have gotten a bum rap as Obama retreads are Tom Vilsack for Agriculture and Denis McDonough to head the Veterans Administration. Coming back to a previous job usually is a bad idea. Call it the “Rumsfeld rule,” after his unfortunate second stint as Defense chief.

Vilsack, however, was a highly regarded Agriculture Secretary, much admired by Obama and congressional Republicans alike. “He’d be even better than the first time,” says Michael Gartner, an Iowa businessman, journalist and Vilsack confidant. “He is an imaginative and creative thinker, is smart, loyal, can be tough and also compassionate.”

McDonough, who was Obama’s chief of staff, is exceptionally able, collegial, a foreign policy expert. Some critics complain that he’s not a veteran.

One story about McDonough underscores his extraordinary character. Roger Runningen was a Bloomberg News White House correspondent. He was the type of reporter vital to a news organization: careful, diligent, always reliable. He didn’t go on the “Morning Joe” television show or court celebrity: He just did his job, often anonymously.

In 2013 Runningen’s son unexpectedly died. It was the middle of a government shutdown with feverish activity at the White House. The evening wake was at a distant Washington suburb, and yet the White House chief of staff walked in. “I had no idea he was coming,” recalls Runningen. “After some small talk, he quietly excused himself, and went to the coffin knelt down and prayed; I will never forget that act of kindness.”

Veterans, those with real needs, will be well taken care of with Denis McDonough.

Team Biden still is a work in progress, with a few critical appointments outstanding, especially Attorney General. So far, it tilts older, but is outpacing Obama on gender and racial diversity.

It should be an administration ready to govern from day one, as difficult as Trump has made the transition.

The vision thing will have to wait.