On the Menu: Grilled OMB Nominee

Meet Heather A. Higginbottom, the Obama administration's nominee for Deputy Director of the Office of Management and Budget.

Confirmation: Doubtful.

But she at least deserves a golf clap for her reluctant honesty.

SESSIONS: "Look at that chart up there. That's from the President's budget numbers. Is there a single year in which we do not add more to the debt?"

HIGGINBOTTOM: "No."

Via Fox Nation on a tip from Mr. JWF.

Cross-posted.

Supremely Boring

How dull are these Sonia Sotomayor Supreme Court confirmation hearings?

Well, even her nephews can't manage to stay awake. When you have an endless procession of Democrats slobbering over an unqualified candidate, it's not enough to keep awake even her most ardent admirers. Almost makes you long for when conservative candidates appear and Democrats get to make up outrageous slanders against them.

It was so boring, even her nephews couldn't keep their eyes open.

The opener of Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor's confirmation hearing droned on for more than five hours yesterday as senators blathered through predictable prepared statements.

Sotomayor's 15-year-old twin nephews, Conner and Corey -- her brother's sons -- sat next to their mom through the session, but it wasn't long before their chins were resting on their chests.

The snoozefest was only the beginning of a five-day congressional hearing expected to pave the way for the confirmation of the first Hispanic Supreme Court nominee in history.

No suspense here.

"Unless you have a complete meltdown, you're gonna get confirmed," Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) told Sotomayor.

Beginning today, Sotomayor will have to answer questions from members of the Judiciary Committee about her record and philosophy -- and GOP senators launched a surprisingly strong line of attack.

Sen. Jeff Sessions of Alabama, the panel's top Republican, said he plans to ask Sotomayor about her 2001 statement that her standing as a "wise Latina woman" would sometimes allow her to reach a better decision than a white man.

"I will not vote for, and no senator should vote for, an individual nominated by any president who believes it is acceptable for a judge to allow their own personal background, gender, prejudices or sympathies to sway their decision," he declared.

Graham was more blunt, saying, "No Republican would have chosen you, Judge -- that's just the way it is."

Yeah, but he'll still probably vote for her.

Tough Talk From Dingy Harry

If he wants to drive off the cliff, he's more than welcome, so long as he takes the rest of his cut-and-run bunch with him.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said Monday he will try to cut off funding for the Iraq war if President Bush rejects Congress' proposal to set a deadline for ending combat.

The move is likely to intensify the Democrats' rift with the administration, which already contends Democrats are putting troops at risk by setting deadlines.

"It's time the self-appointed strategists on Capitol Hill understood a very simple concept: You cannot win a war if you tell the enemy you're going to quit," Vice President Dick Cheney said Monday at fundraising luncheon for Sen. Jeff Sessions.

In recent weeks, the House and Senate voted separately to finance the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan but set an end date for combat in Iraq. The House proposal orders all combat troops as of Aug. 31, 2008, whereas the Senate orders some troops to leave right away with the nonbinding goal of ending combat by March 31, 2008.
The House and Senate are working on a final proposal that can be sent to the president by the end of the month.

Mindful that they hold a shaky majority in Congress and that neither chamber has enough votes to override a presidential veto, Democrats are already thinking about the next step after Bush rejects their legislation.

Being from Nevada, you'd think he'd know when he's playing a weak hand, but his bitterness is getting the best of him.

Meanwhile, although I'm always a bit dubious of Dick Morris, he makes some good points today, and he may be right as to where things are headed.

But Bush will, inevitably, win the game of chicken. Pelosi and Reid have too much sense to be caught denying funding to troops in combat. Bush will make the price of obstinacy too great for the Democrats to bear.

Nobody will want to be in the position of cutting off funding and appearing to undermine the troops during a war.

But the consequences for Pelosi of a retreat will be serious: She'll leave behind her the party's left - who will never vote for funding without also mandating withdrawal. Pelosi will have to scramble and craft a majority with a combination of Republican votes and support from the center of her own party.

The speaker will probably wind up having to vote against the majority of her Democratic members. That spectacle won't be healthy for her future authority or control.

If the Republicans are smart, they will let Pelosi hang by her own rope and will force her to break her party apart by twisting arms for every last vote to pass a funding bill.

Inadvertently forced into triangulation, Pelosi and Reid will be the unwilling instruments of a schism in their party from which it may not recover until after the 2008 election.

It way well be Reid is just bluffing, knowing cutting off funding will have disastrous political consequences. But time is running short and the Democrats will soon be forced to choose: the troops or the far-left fringe of their party.