Withdrawn High-Level Nominees:

The latest withdrawal of a pretty high-level nominee (this time, Chas Freeman) made me wonder why there seem to be many more such in the early phase of this Administration than in past Administrations. Some possible explanations:

  1. I'm misremembering, and there were roughly as many in past Administrations.

  2. This Administration is unusually poor at vetting people. (If so, why?)

  3. This Administration's adversaries are unusually good at torpedoing people. (Doesn't seem quite right, especially given how badly the Republicans were beaten in the election.)

  4. This Administration is unusually willing to cut nominees loose. (If so, why?)

  5. The threshold for disqualifying a nominee has fallen in the last few decades. (If so, why?)

  6. This Administration is unusually willing to propose controversial nominees. (But many of the nominees have not been defeated because their policies or personalities were controversial.

I'm sure there must be others. What are your thoughts on this?