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.