The Select Committee on Deficit Reduction, six Democrats and six Republicans tasked with finding government savings of 1.2 trillion in the next decade or else, will have their first meeting this Thursday Sept 8. Also on that date Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R-Texas) and Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), who were chosen to lead the group. will have their first face to face meeting.

The two Capitol Hill veterans have never met each other. Not in the month since they were tapped to lead the vaunted “supercommittee,” nor in the preceding nine years that they jointly served in Congress, aides to both lawmakers say.

Maybe having two people who have never met or worked together run a massively important congressional super committee only looks bad to people unfamiliar with the mysterious ways of the congress. Maybe the super-committee’s super-staff relationships are where the rubber hits the road. After all aides say Hensarling and Murray have spoken on the phone and they speak about a growing sense of trust between the two. A senior Democrat aide said:

“Everything has been going as well as anyone could have hoped for”

Well that’s reassuring, depending on your hopes.

Maybe Republican former Sen. Alan Simpson, veteran co-chairman of the presidential deficit commission (AKA cat food commission) can offer a reassuring word or two to worried citizens.

“They’re both very bright people. They’re both very partisan people. We’ll see who wins.”

“They’re just the kind of people that hang tough,” Simpson said in an interview. “And they’re going to hang tough. And if they both hang tough-tough-tough, then it probably won’t get done.”

Thanks Alan, that’s as good as anyone could have hoped for from you. What could go wrong?

Tough-tough-tough.