Depending on who wins the Georgia Senate seats, the confirmation of Biden nominees could be trench warfare. If Republicans are in control, they’ll probably let eminent and moderate nominees through, but also demand some human sacrifices.

Topping their hit list is Biden’s OMB nominee, Neera Tanden, who heads the Center for American Progress. What outrages Republicans is not her ideology—Tanden is a moderate liberal—but her snarky partisanship, expressed in edgy tweets.

One backup is Gene Sperling. He’s had top economic jobs under Clinton and Obama, except OMB director. In the musical-chairs derby, Sperling was left without a seat.

Speaking of nominees, I wrote a piece Monday that connected some dots in a misleading fashion. My subject was Adewale Adeyemo, presumptive deputy Treasury secretary.

Adeyemo’s career path suggested a familiar pattern—the Washington–Wall Street revolving door. But after several additional interviews, a more complex picture emerges, of a man of integrity with an admirable personal story.

Adeyemo came to America as a baby, grew up in a rough neighborhood east of L.A., and somehow made it to Berkeley and Yale Law School. Working for Obama while still in his twenties, he was dispatched to help Elizabeth Warren set up the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

Warren and other CFPB veterans sing his praises as a man not running his own agenda but skilled at making things work. "Wally was deeply committed to consumer protection, gigantically smart, enormously generous of spirit, confident but not arrogant," according to Raj Date, who was Warren’s deputy. "He made everyone around him better."

It’s less than ideal that Adeyemo later spent two years at financial giant BlackRock. But my interviews suggest that he is an honorable man who was not installed at Treasury to do the bidding of BlackRock president Larry Fink.

Wall Street surely has far too much influence in Washington, yet not every financial-industry veteran is forever tainted. One Wall Street alum who became a tough regulator is Gary Gensler, now likely to get a senior Biden post.

Adeyemo, though no lefty, will make a good complement to Janet Yellen. And yes, his two years on Wall Street will help him win confirmation.