Score another victory for Senator Kyrsten Sinema. The now-Independent senator from Arizona refused to give her approval of Biden’s FAA director nominee and that decision sealed his fate. Phillip Washington withdrew from consideration.

Phillip Washington is described as a transit and airport executive. He is a 24-year Army veteran and is currently the chief executive of Denver International Airport. He headed Biden’s transition team for transportation after the 2020 election. For whatever reason, perhaps out of some kind of loyalty, Biden has stuck with Washington since his nomination last July. The position of FAA director has been vacant since March 2022. Since then, the acting director, Billy Nolen, has been on the job. The question is, why doesn’t Biden nominate Nolen? Unlike Mr. Washington, Nolen has 33 years of experience in the industry.

His official resume reflects a mix of relevant experience.

Billy has over 33 years of experience in operations and corporate safety, regulatory affairs and flight operations. He started his career as a 767, 757 and MD-80 pilot with American Airlines. His passion for operations and safety led to the role of Manager of the Pilot Aviation Safety Action Program (ASAP). He then became Manager of Flight Safety with responsibility for Accident/Incident Investigations, Flight Operational Quality Assurance, Line Operations Safety Audits, and oversight of the Pilot and Maintenance ASAPs.

After American Airlines, Billy served as Senior Vice President of Safety, Security and Operations with Airlines for America, where he collaborated with leaders across the airline industry, government and other key stakeholders to enhance safety and operational performance.

He subsequently served as Executive Manager of Group Safety & Health for the Qantas Group. In that capacity, Billy played a key role in the Qantas Group Safety Governance Framework and was responsible for providing assurance and advice to the Qantas Board, principally the Corporate Health, Environmental, Safety & Security Committee, the Group CEO, the Qantas Group Management Committee, and Qantas’ executive management.

Billy came to FAA from his position as Vice President of Safety, Security and Quality at WestJet in Calgary, Alberta. Reporting to the CEO, Billy had responsibility for overseeing safety, security and quality across WestJet, Encore and Swoop, 14,700 WestJet employees, and the millions of passengers flying on WestJet aircraft each year.

By Team Biden’s standards, the man is too qualified and has too much experience in his field. In the assortment of misfits that is the overall population of Biden nominees, past experience and relevant knowledge in the field in which a Biden nominee finds himself or herself is not a pertinent factor. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, who oversees the FAA, is a prime example. Mayor Pete has been an utter disaster in his cabinet position. It was more important for Biden to be able to tout the fact that Buttigieg is gay than it was to highlight real qualifications or experience. The former Mayor of South Bend, Indiana, population 100,000, had no experience in management in the transportation industry. But he likes trains. Unfortunately, he doesn’t like trains enough to work on solutions for the number of derailments or safety issues. The residents of East Palestine, Ohio aren’t exactly singing the praises of Buttigieg.

If Joe Biden was a competent president, which he most certainly is not, he would hire people who are qualified and talented in their fields of expertise. That is what a good administrator does. When Biden said he would restore “normal” to the White House, he apparently meant the status quo of pencil-pushing bureaucrats. Biden’s focus is purely political and that is why he focuses on checking identity boxes instead of qualifications and experience. Nolen has the backing of some Republicans in the Senate and would receive bipartisan support in his confirmation vote if he was the nominee. If Biden wants to be a president who can bring all sides together, why not take that win?

Republicans voiced their opposition to Washington. He doesn’t have the experience the moment demands. Some say he is too focused on politics and pushing diversity in the transportation industry.

Republican senators, led by Ted Cruz (R-Tex.), said Washington lacked the aviation safety experience required for the job. They sought to tie him to local political issues in California, where he headed the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority, and assailed his focus on diversifying the ranks of transportation officials and contractors.

“With all respect, Mr. Washington, it gives no comfort to the flying public that their pilot might be a transgendered witch but doesn’t actually know how to prevent the plane from crashing into the ground and killing them. I believe your record is woefully lacking,” Cruz said during a Senate hearing on his nomination earlier this month. He noted Washington had been neither a pilot nor an aviation industry executive.

Fact check: True. Most of us don’t care with whom the pilot of our flight is sleeping but we sure as hell care if they are an experienced pilot who can land us safely at our destination.

There have been a number of recent safety issues.

In January, the FAA halted all departing passenger airline flights for nearly two hours because of a pilot messaging database outage, the first nationwide ground stop of its kind since the September 11, 2001, attacks.

On Wednesday, the FAA issued a safety alert to airlines, pilots and others about the ‘need for continued vigilance and attention to mitigation of safety risks’ after a series of high-profile near collisions.

Six serious runway incursions have occurred since January that prompted the agency to convene a safety summit last week.

This is not the time for a hire based on loyalty to the president. Senator Sinema refused to give her approval to Washington’s nomination. So did Senator Jon Tester. Washington did not have the votes to get his nomination out of the committee.

Mayor Pete and the unions supported Washington. That tells us all we need to know. Let Petey whine about those mean Republican senators.