White House Rips Democrat Landrieu for Nominee Hold

Most of the White House’s fights have come with Republican members of Congress. But now the Obama administration is getting into it with a Democrat, too, The Hill reports. Louisiana Sen. Mary Landrieu’s procedural hold on President Obama's nominee for budget director is “sad and outrageous,” White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said Thursday.

Landrieu, a Democrat, is holding up the Senate confirmation of Jacob Lew as head of the White House’s Office of Management and Budget until a lame duck session of Congress after the election. She wants to force the Obama administration to drop or weaken a moratorium on deepwater oil-and-gas drilling.

Gibbs said it’s ridiculous for Landrieu to hold up the nomination of someone who received bipartisan support from the Senate Budget and Homeland Security committees.