Neera Tanden’s tweets appear to have caused her a lot of trouble. The nonprofit Center for American Progress president and longtime Democratic operative, at this writing, remains President Joe Biden’s nominee to direct the U.S. Office of Management and Budget. But …

The Tanden nomination “is all but officially dead, with moderate senators like Joe Manchin citing her often hostile, partisan and personal tweeting as a reason to vote against her,” as Blue Tent’s Trip Brennan put it yesterday in “Live By The Tweet, Die By The Tweet.”

She probably should have known better, and sure seemed to have known so once. During a 2012 Bradley Center for Philanthropy and Civic Renewal event at the Hudson Institute, “Are Think Tanks Becoming Too Political?, Tanden said

I’d very much disagree with this idea about the research world declining, and I take the point very seriously. There is, in many ways, too much commentary coming out of think tanks. I’m pushing all our teams to focus more on analysis and less on commentary. But there is a lot of commentary out there.

(Emphasis supplied.)

Yes, yes, there was. Has been, still is. And we should all take note, whatever our worldview.

Nonprofit think tanks have institutional, and their leaders have proper professional, roles to play. Research and analysis are proper and important parts of think tanks’ role. Pre-tweet Tanden ’twas right.