The OMB Director Shouldn’t Be ‘Partisan’? That’s a New One
Republican opposition to Neera Tanden shouldn’t be based on made-up principles.
Sometimes it helps to be partisan.
Photographer: Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images
In commenting on President-elect Joe Biden’s choice for director of the U.S. Office of Management and Budget, Ohio Senator Rob Portman, a former OMB director, invented a new qualification for the job: “It’s the partisan nature,” Portman said. “Of all the jobs, that’s one where I think you would need to be careful not to have someone who’s overtly partisan.”
Nonsense. That has never been true of OMB, and it isn’t true today. If Portman wants to vote against Neera Tanden, who is president of the Center for American Progress and Biden’s OMB choice, he’s free to do so. If Portman winds up chairing one of the relevant Senate committees, he’s also free to refuse to hold a hearing on her nomination. But he can’t make up nonexistent traditions.