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The next director of the Office of Management and Budget faces a daunting To Do list. First, he or she must figure out how to get along with Congress. Second, the director must figure out how to get along with Congress. After that, the budget director will be able to tackle something easier, such as balancing the federal budget once again.

The resignation of Mitchell E. Daniels Jr. as President Bush's budget director drew a mixed reaction last week. But virtually everyone agreed that Daniels, who is revered by conservatives and reviled by appropriators and Democrats, has damaged OMB's standing with the legislators the office must deal with every day. "They need to choose someone who respects the Hill," said Robert Reischauer, president of the Urban Institute and former director of the Congressional Budget Office. "It's been an administration that has not treated Congress with the respect it believes it deserves." Reischauer also said that Daniels and others have failed to involve congressional Republicans in developing policy.

Daniels's resignation came as no great surprise. He has admitted to contemplating a run for governor in his home state of Indiana. And while the OMB director didn't announce his candidacy on Tuesday, Bush said that Daniels was leaving to run for political office back home. Hoosier politicos agree. "There's no question about it," said Robert Garton, the Republican president pro tempore of the Indiana Senate. "There would be no other reason for him to resign right now."

But if Daniels runs and wins, he will have to figure out how to get along with the Indiana General Assembly better than he has with Congress. His habit of sticking his foot in his mouth is well known - the statements range from saying appropriators have no reason for existing other than to spend money, to criticizing New Yorkers for looking for more money to help them recover from the 9/11 disaster.

Some Democrats this week went so far as to question whether Daniels and other Bush budgeteers understood Congress's role in deciding how money should be spent. The new director must have a substantive understanding of the budget and its impact on people's lives, said Scott Lilly, Democratic staff director of the House Appropriations Committee. But perhaps most important, Lilly said, the new director must demonstrate a "broad understanding of American government and the Constitution."

Republican appropriations staffers were no more forgiving. Daniels focused only on cutting discretionary spending and ignored entitlement programs, said James Dyer, the Republican staff director of the House committee. "The big picture went away," Dyer said. "The big reforms in the budget are not going to come from hacking away at discretionary spending." The new director must be willing to at least look more closely at entitlements, Dyer said.

Daniels's allies, such as Sen. John E. Sununu, R-N.H., agreed that the next director has to get along better with Congress. But, Sununu said, the new OMB honcho must also do two things that Daniels has already accomplished: "The most important thing is [the ability] that Mitch had to master the details of the federal budget and put together a good staff." In addition, the OMB director "has to be totally committed to the president and the president's agenda."

Daniels may be leaving at a pivotal time - the start of the congressional appropriations season. "There needs to be a point man for Congress to go to," said Tom Kahn, the Democratic staff director of the House Budget Committee. But it is better for Daniels to leave now rather than later in the year, Reischauer asserted. Congress - not the administration - will be dealing with appropriations issues for the next few months, he said. Having a director in place will be crucial by the time the appropriations bills go to conference in the early fall. "There's never a good time for the OMB director to step down, but now is one of the better times," Reischauer said.

Choosing the next OMB director could prove difficult. Bush may favor longtime friend Clay Johnson, whose nomination as deputy director is pending. But some senators might have trouble with Johnson, and many commented this week that they do not know him. Other names circulating were from the list of "usual suspects": Rep. Rob Portman, R-Ohio; former House Budget Chairman John Kasich, R-Ohio; and former Senate Budget Committee Staff Director G. William Hoagland, now budget adviser to Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn. All three would have instant credibility on Capitol Hill but might have disadvantages.

The toughest test of the new director's ability to get along with people may be his or her relationship with Senate Appropriations Chairman Ted Stevens, R-Alaska. It took Daniels less than a year to provoke the hot-tempered Stevens into saying that the only way to improve their relationship would be for Daniels to go home. Stevens seems to have gotten his wish now. And there is no telling how long it may be before Stevens tries to run a new director out of town on a rail.

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