Dark Horse OMB Candidate

Move over Gene Sperling, Laura Tyson and Rob Nabors. New York University professor Paul Light wants to add another name to the short list of candidates to replace Peter Orszag in the top job at the Office of Management and Budget: former Comptroller General David Walker. The current crop of front-runners is heavily weighted toward the budget side of the job, but OMB needs someone who will pay more than lip service to management issues, Light argues. From that perspective, Walker does seem to fit the bill. During his 10-year tenure as head of the Government Accountability Office, he advocated sound management as one of several ways to head off an impending fiscal catastrophe. We also hear Walker, now head of the Peter G. Peterson Foundation, plays a mean game of "Budgetball."