My post today is about a man whom few of the readers of this blog will know unless they are active in investment banking are close followers of Democratic Party politics or like me attend the same parent-teacher meetings. Antonio Weiss is a successful investment banker at Lazard Frères who has been nominated by President Obama to serve as Under Secretary of Treasury for Domestic Policy. This would not normally be a controversial nomination given Antonio’s professional credentials liberal leanings and strong support for the President and the Democratic Party. However what makes the appointment newsworthy (or at least blog-worthy) is the fierce opposition the nomination has unleashed – from within the Democratic Party.

In particular the Weiss nomination has drawn the immediate ire of Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts who within 48 hours of his nomination vowed to oppose the appointment. As Andrew Ross Sorkin wrote in his New York Times Deal Book column Senator Warren’s “main objection is simply that Mr. Weiss has worked on Wall Street which she seems to believe disqualifies him based on symbolism alone.” Wow and I would have thought it might actually come in handy to know something about finance if the appointee is going to be responsible for managing the Nation’s staggering debt load. Perhaps I am unfairly underestimating Senator Warren; perhaps in those two days she and her staff conducted a thorough analysis of Antonio’s qualifications and interviewed clients and colleagues concerning his ethical values commitment smarts and technical proficiency. If they did they were silent on the matter and also were in such a rush to condemn the appointment that they could not even be bothered to meet with the candidate himself.

This all got me to reflect on some of the differences between the political and commercial worlds. In business employers generally care about hiring staff with the critical talents to perform a given job – if they don’t they are unlikely to perform well or even survive. Companies also care about burnishing their reputation as an “employer of choice” to attract future employees. In politics the reverse seems to hold true – demonize the nominee and make the confirmation process less appealing than a colonoscopy. In the case of Antonio Weiss and a long line of others before him attack the nominee on some superficial basis (e.g. “He is a banker” and therefore bad; or “He organized tax inversion transactions” whether true or not) and then make the process so unpleasant that the nominee wishes he had never responded to the call of public service in the first place.

I would have thought that after its weak showing in the mid-term elections the Democratic Party had more important things to do than mimic the internecine fighting which has rent the Republican party between its far right Tea Party faction and its traditional pro-business core. If the Weiss confirmation process is any indication we are witnessing the emergence of a left-wing fringe in the Democratic Party – call them the Chai Party – who like their Tea Party brethren place political dogma above competent governance. What a shame that the centrists among us who only desire good and competent government have so few choices left.