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By Ian Swanson
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Posted: 06/20/07 08:07 PM [ET] |
The White House announced yesterday that Rob Portman will soon leave his post as director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) amid the intensifying battle between the administration and the Democratic-led Congress on spending measures.
Portman told President Bush he was leaving a couple of months ago, but told reporters the news was kept under wraps so that the White House could first find a successor.
Bush announced former House Budget Committee Chairman Jim Nussle (R-Iowa) would be his nominee to replace Portman, who said he planned to stay on the job until Nussle’s confirmation or the August congressional recess, whichever comes first.
This sets up a potentially contentious confirmation battle even as the administration and Congress are fighting over the terms of pending appropriations bills. The administration has already threatened to veto several appropriations measures being considered in the House.
Nussle is considered more partisan than Portman, who is widely respected on both sides of the aisle as a negotiator able to secure compromises. Several leading Democrats expressed disappointment he was leaving OMB.
“I very much regret [the departure],” said Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad (D-N.D.), who has sparred with Portman over budgetary issues. “Rob Portman was someone of credibility and decency, someone I felt I could work with.”
Conrad told The Hill he hoped Nussle would have the same approach, and that Nussle had already reached out to him, but that they had yet to talk.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said he hoped Nussle would be as easy to work with as Portman, but House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) sounded doubtful that Democrats would have the same relationship with an OMB headed by Nussle.
“My advice to myself is not to comment on that immediately,” Hoyer told reporters when asked about Nussle’s appointment.
“My immediate reaction is not one I’m wise to articulate.”
While Hoyer said he disagreed with Portman on perhaps a majority of issues, he described him as a “person of keen intellect” and a “responsible legislator.”
Portman praised Nussle as a legislator who gets along with other members well and has developed a good working relationship in particular with House Budget Committee Chairman John Spratt (D-S.C.).
Nussle has a close relationship with President Bush going back to 1999, when he endorsed Bush for the Iowa caucuses. He left his House seat last year after he lost a bid for Iowa’s governorship, and has endorsed former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani for president.
Nussle was the chairman of the Budget Committee when Bush’s tax cuts were moved through Congress in Bush’s first term.
House Caucus Chairman Rahm Emanuel (D-Ill.) in a statement said the legacy of Bush and Nussle is “$3 trillion in new debt and six years of deficit spending.”
House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) said he was pleased with the appointment of Nussle, who along with Boehner was a member of the “gang of seven,” a group of young House Republicans who called for reforms in the way Democrats ran the House in the 1990s.
Portman, who is married with three children, said he was leaving OMB to spend more time with his family. But he indicated his political career is not over, and suggested a challenge to Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland (D), who was just elected last fall amid a disastrous political season for Ohio Republicans, is an option he is considering.
When Strickland is up for reelection in 2010, it will be the first time an incumbent Democratic governor will face reelection in about 20 years, Portman said. “So that’s a possibility,” said Portman, who had Ohio unemployment statistics at his fingertips during his session with reporters.
“But obviously I’m not making any commitments at this point. At this point I truly want to go home, reconnect with my family, and then take the opportunity to look at the political possibilities,” he said.
Portman, who has continued to commute to his Ohio home on weekends, said he wasn’t worried his association with the Bush administration would hurt him in Ohio, where the economy has struggled. “I think people judge you on the basis of what you’ve done and who you are,” he said.
He also insisted he was proud to be a part of the administration, and praised its tax and trade policies. After a reporter noted that Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) was elected last year on a platform critical of the administration’s trade policies, Portman said there were a number of reasons for Brown’s victory and that he would be pleased to engage in a debate over trade’s impact on Ohio.
Portman also dodged a question about whether it would be good for his political future to leave Washington. “It’s good for my mental health,” said Portman, who served as OMB director for a little more than a year. He previously served as U.S. Trade Representative for one year after six terms in the House.
Portman said he didn’t have any specific work plans in Ohio. He said he had been contacted by all of the Republican presidential campaigns, with the exception of former Sen. Fred Thompson (R-Tenn.), who has yet to announce officially that he is in the race.
Cabinet members are not allowed to endorse candidates, and Portman said he didn’t know whether he would be working with any specific candidates for president. He also said he didn’t expect to be asked to be a vice presidential candidate.
Elana Schor and Mike Soraghan contributed to this article. |
