The vote schedule on the nomination of Jim Nussle to the position of Director, OMB is somewhat clarified at this point:

• The Senate Homeland Security and Givernmental Affairs Committee will hold its vote tomorrow (Wednesday) morning, committee chair Sen. Joe Lieberman (D-CT) has announced
• The Senate Budget Committee has not scheduled a vote on Nussle's confirmation, with committee chair Sen. Kent Conrad (D-ND) saying only that he will make a decision following tomorrow's fiscal "summit" with President Bush.

Tomorrow is the day of the grand summit between President Bush and Democratic leaders on the 2008 federal budget. The summit -- an attempt to reconcile their differences regarding the budget -- was announced last Wednesday. Senate Budget Committee chair Kent Conrad remarked that the meeting could be a key to Nussle's confirmation to head OMB: "It will certainly be affected by that [meeting]."

But the following day, in a speech to the American Legislative Exchange Council in Philadelphia, President Bush set a tone that was anything but conciliatory, employing the rhetoric of a tax abolitionist and issuing a grave warning to Democrats about their plan:

There's an interesting philosophical debate that's now playing out in the United States Congress... who do we trust to handle the people's money. A basic principle from which I have operated as governor and now as President is this: I think it's wise for government and government officials to trust the people to spend their money. See, I think you can spend your money, and I think you know how to save your money better than the federal government knows how to spend your money... you ask the average American family [and] they'll say, let me have my money, I can do a good job with it.... The best way to balance this budget is to keep the economy strong by letting you keep your money.

And so it's no surprise that the [Democrats'] budget framework includes the largest tax increase in American history. In order to pay for the promises they have made, their budget framework includes the largest tax increase -- not the second largest or close to the largest -- the largest tax increase in American history... And that's why I plan on using my veto to keep your taxes low.

You can already imagine them on the summit tomorrow, President Bush seeing green at every opportunity, the Democrats experiencing vertigo.

Today, the Democratic leadership in Congress released their long-awaited compromise lobbying and ethics bill - The Honest Leadership and Open Government Act of 2007 (text of the legislation). The bill is 107 pages long, but already there has been some criticism of changes to the bill, particularly the earmark disclosure sections (see Mark Tapscott's reaction and the Porkbusters blog for a sampling). Two Senators, Tom Coburn (R-OK) and Jim DeMint (R-SC) - whose amendment to the bill earlier this year on earmark disclosure greatly strengthen the bill - have also posted disappointing reactions.

At first glance it does appear the final version of the bill is not as strong (i.e. transparent) as the original and it is unclear why those changes were adopted at this point in the debate. DeMint has announced he will offer an amendment during final consideration of the bill to "restore real earmark reform." It's yet to be seen whether that amendment will be adopted of if this version is the best the House and Senate will be able to do this year.

I am of the view that continuing resolutions do not define success. I would just suggest that both sides are losers when that is the case....The president is not able to move his agenda and priorities forward under a continuing resolution. Congress is not able to work its will and exercise its authority of power of the purse under Article I in a continuing resolution. I don't believe anyone wins.

-- OMB Director-nominee Jim Nussle, before the Senate Budget Committee, July 26, 2007

Lest there be any lingering doubts in anyone's mind about committee chair Sen. Kent Conrad's feelings about Nussle and whatever anyone may or may not at one point or another have said publicly or privately about Nussle's style, certainly not his reputation for confrontation, Sen. Conrad offers his unequivocal heartfelt sentiment on the subject:

I always felt I got along well with you, Jim Nussle. I like you and I always thought we had a very constructive working relationship. My staff feels good about your staff.

The tone for today's short and sweet Senate Budget Committee confirmation hearing on Jim Nussle's nomination to serve as OMB Director was set by the men who introduced him. Apparently, he was in good hands.

Rep. John Spratt (D-SC), chair of the House Budget Committee, had high praise for Nussle as an even-handed, fair-minded administrator during his six years as chair of that committee, making sure that Spratt, then the committee's ranking Democrat, and his staff had all the resources due them, even finding office space in the Cannon House Office Building basement when, Spratt recalled, they had nowhere to meet "except on the street."

Sen. Charles Grassley (R-IA) fondly recalled the days when Nussle drove Grassley around Iowa during his 1980 Senate campaign. Since none of Grassley's five children had an interest in politics, to Grassley clear disappointment, he came to regard Nussle as a "little Grassley."

Senate Budget chair Kent Conrad (D-ND), who had previously predicted trouble for Nussle with his nomination, was so impressed with these introductions, that, after showing some flip charts depicting the woeful and worsening fiscal condition of the nation, he closed the hearing before half of the committee members had an opportunity to question Nussle.

This displeased Sen. Pete Domenici (R-NM), who complained about Conrad's "early bird" policy and then asked Nussle to consider expedited funding for an energy project that Nussle had never heard of. It was not clear when the committee would re-convene to report on the Nussle nomination, but it was clear that whatever "baggage" Conrad felt Nussle might have had was ably handled ably by his introducers.

• For Conrad's charts, click here.
• For Conrad's opening statement and Nussle's partial response, click here.

Ignore that man on the floor with a bag over his head. Pay attention instead to what he does behind closed doors.

That was the message of OMB Director-nominee Jim Nussle yesterday at his Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee confirmation hearing:

I believe the way I would like to be judged is not only by how you battled each other on the floor, and during debates like that where passion certainly can sometimes even get the best of you, but it's also on how you conduct yourself behind closed doors, and with colleagues, and honoring agreements and working to find consensus when that becomes the opportunity and I believe I've done that as well.

I wonder if Senate Budget Committee chair Kent Conrad (D-ND) was making a pun at Nussle's expense when he told reporters on the day Jim Nussle was nominated that Nussle is "an intense partisan more given to confrontation than cooperation — he's coming here with baggage." (emph. added)

Nussle -- who put a bag over his head on the House floor to draw attention to the House bank overdraught scandal in 1991 -- goes before Conrad's committee for a second confirmation hearing tomorrow morning.

The "big-picture" quotation of the day, from this morning's Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Afffairs Committee hearing on Jim Nussle to be director of OMB:

I think to threaten vetoes at this point of any appropriations bills that in any way exceed the administration's top line does not in the first instance respect the right of the Congress to reach its own budgetary conclusions. It also, I fear, sets us up for another round of political posturing and mudslinging that could shut down parts of our government, and definitely will further push down the rapidly declining opinion the American people have of all of us.

-- Committee chair Joseph Lieberman (D-CT)

The schedule of confirmation hearings for former Rep. Jim Nussle (R-IA), the president's pick to replace Rob Portman as OMB director is as follows:

• Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee (Sen. Joseph Lieberman, chair): Tuesday, July 24, 10 a.m.
• Senate Budget Committee (Sen. Kent Conrad, chair): Thursday, July 26, 10 a.m.

The Homeland Security and Government Affairs and Budget Committees both have jurisdiction over the nomination. The nomination will reach the Senate floor if both committees report Nussle out -- whether favorably or not -- within 30 legislative days of each other.

The OMB Mid-Session Review today announced yet another expected reduction in the administration's earlier implausibly inflated federal budget deficit projection for the year. Senate Budget Committee chair Kent Conrad, in response, sounded like a man dizzy from too many turns on a not-so-merry-go-round:

We have seen repeatedly that they overstate the February deficit estimate in order to claim improvement later in the year. It has been a very consistent practice. You can see they started doing this in 2004 and it has been a very consistent pattern. And once again [Bush] has played this game of inflating his February deficit estimate so that he could claim an improvement now and later in the year. I will predict to you today that there will be more improvement by October. There really won't be any improvement. It is just that they have not correctly estimated the amount now so that they can claim progress later.

We noted this stunt in 2005, 2006, and predicted it for this year as well.

Bear in mind that Conrad will have a chance to confront the administration directly on this and other budget issues when OMB Director nominee Jim Nussle comes before Conrad's committee for confirmation.... eventually.

Conrad has not set a hearing date for Nussle amid threats of spending bill vetos, holds, and recess appointments swirling through the humid mid-summer atmosphere on Capitol Hill -- and Conrad ("there are going to be issues with this confirmation") was already steaming mad as soon as he heard of Nussle's nomination.