Biden avenges Dems with Merrick pick

There may be a new president heading to the White House, but the administration is decidedly retro.

President-elect Joe Biden has denied it — “This is not a third Obama term because we face a totally different world than we faced in the Obama-Biden administration,” he told ABC News. But reports Wednesday that Biden has chosen Judge Merrick Garland to serve as his attorney general after tapping veterans from the Obama administration for Cabinet positions belie that statement.

That “totally different world” is one in which old scores can be settled.

Judge Garland has impressive credentials that make him a highly qualified candidate for the AG spot (he’s served on the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals for more than two decades, and previously held senior positions in the Justice Department). But a key claim to the judicial moderate’s fame is his snub from Republicans during his nomination by President Barack Obama to the Supreme Court to fill the seat vacated by the late Justice Antonin Scalia in early 2016.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell denied Garland a hearing or a vote. The nomination hung suspended for the rest of the year, and confirmation hopes evaporated after Donald Trump won the presidency.

Democrats were not pleased, and that rancor carried over into this year’s brawl over the nomination of Amy Coney Barrett to the High Court.

With this move, Biden has avenged Garland and the party and cemented his centrist approach to governing the country.

It’s also a clear signal that the imprint of former President Obama is very much a part of the Biden White House.