> "incumbents first" would sometimes improve the quality of the nominee pool I think this really ignores the political realities. If the first thing the nomcom had to do was to have an up/down vote on each incumbent, no incumbent would ever be removed. The procedures for selecting the nomcom do not select for people with the backbone to make hard decisions like this. Especially not when there are liaisons from the powers that be who are offering help and keeping an eye on everything.
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