Former OMB  Director, Sylvia Mathews Burwell, on deck to replace HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, is getting high marks from a conservative reporter and a Republican Senator.

After the White House announced Burwell's nomination, John McCain tweeted:

Sylvia Burwell is an excellent choice to be the next HHS Secretary.

On Monday Washington Examiner writer Paul Bedard had this to say about Obama's latest pick:

...she's [Burwell] kinda considered a budget genius, she used to work for high tech companies out West, I met her a couple of times...she's a real straight shooter, very honest, likes to basically tell ya how things are going and generally kinda considered the person who should be able to fix the whole website issue, not a political person who's going to go out there and pitch it.

So Burwell’s a doer not a pitchman, but just because someone's a straight shooter doesn't mean they don't go for the jugular.

MSN reported in October, 2013 Burwell had only been on the job as Obama’s OMB Director for six months before she ordered the government shutdown.

A  single person shut down the entire U.S. government for the first time in 17 years.

Not a congressman, but an unelected woman named Sylvia Burwell who, as the relatively new director of the Office of Management and Budget, sent the email that initiated the process that has closed national parks, visitors’ centers and even the “panda-cam” at the National Zoo.

“Agencies should now execute plans for an orderly shutdown due to the absence of appropriations," Burwell wrote in a memo to heads of executive departments and agencies.

Burwell quickly demonstrated she had no problem using the power of her office to antagonize American sightseers and military heroes. When the park service put up barricades to an open air World War II Memorial in DC during the shutdown, crowds of military veterans converged at the site and pushed through the barriers. The 16-day shutdown of national parks ended up costing nearby communities hundreds of millions of dollars in lost revenue.

Burwell may indeed be an “excellent choice” as HHS Secretary, but not for the reason John McCain thinks.

Burwell stands by her men. She was a hardcore Clinton loyalist during the Monica Lewinsky scandal and no doubt she will stand by Obama no matter how rough it gets.

She told The Seattle Times in 2007, “I made a decision that I believed, and do to this day, that while President Clinton made a mistake, that the contributions he made to this country and the important changes are so profound that I would continue to serve, and serve with my head held high.” No wonder Obama picked her.

Burwell was confirmed as OMB Director in 2013 with a 96-0 vote and most likely, with supporters in both parties pulling for her, she will slide through on Friday. But this time the “budget genius” will be in charge of trying to fix Obama’s nightmarish law.