Stumbling Out Of The Gate

Yesterday Daniel Wagner of the AP explained that seventeen top slots in Treasury have not been filled, leaving Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner wandering the halls humming "Lonely Guy".

Today Mr. Wagner informs us that Geithner will be just a bit lonelier:

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The person Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner wanted as his chief deputy withdrew from consideration Thursday, dealing a setback to the understaffed agency as it struggles to address the worst financial crisis in decades.

Annette Nazareth, a former senior staffer and commissioner with the Securities and Exchange Commission, made "a personal decision" to withdraw from the process, according to a person familiar with her decision.

The decision followed more than a month of intense scrutiny of her taxes and multiple interviews. No tax problems or other issues arose during Nazareth's vetting, said the person, who requested anonymity because Geithner's choice of Nazareth was never announced officially.

"She did put a great deal of consideration into the potential of taking the position, and she concluded that she really enjoys what she's doing now," this person said.

No tax problems?  I smell tax problems!  As Mickey noted, it requires a superhuman effort to get every last detail right when the topic is household help.  Which is too bad - those transgressions can be minor and inadvertent, not large and willful as with Geithner's unilateral tax cut.  However, having exhausted their political capital on Geithner the White House won't be defending lesser transgressions.  Too bad.

In other news, Sanjay Gupta won't be our next Surgeon General.  And the nominee for head of the National Intelligence Council, Chas Freeman, seems to be taking on water.  Odd - these people are all passing up on great book deals.

[end of thread]

Comments

[kim]

Freeman is hardly free. He's attached, and costly.
===================================

[kim]

Whoa, posting from home!. However, I have to type in the email address anew each time, and it won't accept the comment without an URL. And it won't post from 'post'. I have to be in the email field and hit return. Strange. What is being attempted to measure, may well be unmeasurable. Heh.
========================================

[kim]

Let me try this.
===============

[kim]

Better and better. Even though the email address displays incorrectly now, so long as my cursor is in the email space and I hit return, it posts. Bizarre. I guess typepad is a metaphor for this Presidency. Is the disastrous confusion incompetence or malice? Might as well flip a coin.

I get the feeling some people see the handwriting on the wall and don't want to be anywhere near this Baby Destructo. The professional politicians must be mumbling to themselves. I'd like to see a poll of the superdelegates, right now.
========================================

[Pagar]

With all these vacancies at Treasury, wouldn't it be terrible if they relaxed their standards and started hiring tax cheats? Who would have any faith in them if they did something like that?

[Pagar]

As for Freeman, I have no idea how he could be approved for a Secret security clearance, let along any higher clearance.

[bad]

LOL Pagar

[Stephanie]

Hi all, Leaving work today was a sight so funny I just couldn't wait to get home to tell y'all about it.

A car is in front of me on the way out of the parking garage... it has an new O sticker kinda like the W ones from 2004...

and it has a bumper sticker that says...

Where's my bailout?

Cognitive Dissonance or Moving Violation?

[MayBee]

I want a bumpersticker that says
"Shut up, Obama!"

[Ann]

So now we are going to bailout the FDIC that insures the banks that need a bailout. My head hurts.

Bill Seeks $500 Billion for FDIC Fund

I think we need to bring back the word "quagmire"... The Obama Economic Quagmire. (Only quagmire sounds to nice at this point.)

[mel]

Who wants to work for a guy who's supposed to be bailing the boat, and it turns out he's holding a drill?

Not I.

[mel]

Stephanie-

I bet you can clear their front bumper by at MOST four inches while helping them to park at thirty miles an hour.

Just a thought.

(and call me with the bill)

[clarice]

Very funny, pagar.

[E. Nigma]

But I heard a top funtionary of the Democratic Party on CNN tonight say that this just indicates what a careful job the Obama Administration is doing "vetting" their nominees.
So there.

Whatever "vetting" really means. Whatever they are really up to. I think they are having problems getting any first rate people (or even second rate people) to step up and take government jobs in this administration.

[bad]

Ann, I guess Schumer is starting another run and Dodd wants to be super-duper prepared.

Quite logical, actually...

[Ann]

Clarice,
If you are still around, I would love to know what you think of David Frum's blog: http://www.theweek.com/article/index/93904/The_Limbaugh_schism ">The Limbaugh Schism

[kim]

Seems like a blindered member of the MSM, Ann. The MSM is the problem, not Rush.
===============================

[Ann]

bad,
The fact that Dodd is behind this idea should scare everyone. What does he know?

I actually thought of closing our few savings accounts and putting them under the mattress, as they say, but realized with my luck the whole house would burn down.

[Stephanie]

The temp is supposed to be a comfy 68 degrees tomorrow. I think I shall put the top down and my middle finger up... all the way down Peachtree Street til she takes the left ramp to the interstate, and I take the right. Apropos with my "Rush is Right" bumpersticker and all.

Bwahahaha....

[Stephanie]

Delingpole dishes on Me-chelle...

Here we see that she has mastered the authentic voice of grievance culture. She also - the thesis was written in 1985 - pre-empts the Macpherson report's ludicrous, catch-all definition of racism: "A racist incident is any incident which is perceived to be racist by the victim or any other person." No matter how hard young Michelle's white undergraduate contemporaries try to be nice, it's not their behaviour that counts, but how Michelle feels.

More worrying, though, and dangerous, than young Michelle's desperate quest for validation through victimhood is the other strain within her thesis. "As I enter my final year at Princeton," she writes. "I find myself striving for many of the same goals as my White classmates - acceptance to a prestigious graduate or professional school or a high paying position in a successful corporation. Thus, my goals at Princeton are not as clear as before."

"Yes, exactly, you silly girl" you want to shriek at young Michelle as you give her a good shake. "It's called 'opening your mind', 'broadening your experience', 'allowing youthful dogma to be shaped by reality.' It's why people go to university, don't you know?"

Ouch!

LUN

[clarice]

I don't know if Frum is right or I am, but I think he's wrong..

[Ann]

I agree kim. Frum seems to be very jealous, cruel and blind.

The part of RUSH's CPAC speech that I thought was important and that is not being reported on is the part where he tells us to tell liberals that their policies are CRUEL. I can't wait to try that on my evil sister in laws.

[Stephanie]

Can I swim in the pool for a while (I did pay for it)...

Deep deep in the pages of the plan, is paragraph vi. Second Liens: While eligibly loan modifications will not require any participation by second lien holders, the program will include additional incentives to extinguish second liens on loans modified under the program in order to reduce the overall indebtedness of the borrower and improve loan performance. Servicers will be eligible to receive compensation when they contact second lien holders and extinguish valid junior liens. Servicers will be reimbursed for the release according to the specified schedule, and will also receive an extra $250 for obtaining a release of a valid second lien.

LUN

[Ann]

Stephanie,

Go buy his book! You will love it. ( I wish I was getting paid for all my promotion of it)

Chapters I loved were "Barbeque The Polar Bears" and "Think They Can't Ban Hunting". You will laugh out loud...promise.

[Stephanie]

Thanks for the tip. I will. And now, it sucks to be saying this - I can't play on the tubes anymore...I have to go to bed or I will oversleep and be late for work...

OK, the new job is a good thing, but why can't I get anyone to pay me for sitting on my ass and watching World Baseball or for playing golf for fun?

[Neo]

The whole Limbaugh thing is fodder for the circus .. in the sense of bring on the Lions and the Christians.

I just love how they, mostly Democrats, are yelling about a "schism". If there is a schism, it's between those who want to act like Democrats and those who want to act like conservatives. I keep finding Frum in the former.

[PD]

"She did put a great deal of consideration into the potential of taking the position, and she concluded that she really enjoys what she's doing now,"

I suppose I might be reading that with a jaundiced eye, but it sounds a lot like a description of a person weighing the job with an eye to what's in it for her, rather than how it might be service to the country.

[PD]

I just love how they, mostly Democrats, are yelling about a "schism".

Indeed. Like, really, who cares? Schism = people debating issues. It can be a good thing. But Democrats who require lockstep within their own ranks cannot be expected to understand such a thing.

[kim]

OK, I got a good book title: Ground Zero, the Story of the Most Destructive President in History.
=========================================

[bad]

I love the idea of ground Zero, LITERALLY.

[kim]

Rich Lowry dumps on Freeman at the NYPost today, found through RealClearPolitics. He calls him Chas of Arabia.
==========================================

[kim]

Heh, bad, yeah, that one resonates.
===================================

[kim]

Finally, something to like about Schumer. He's opposing Charles Freeman. Apparently, Chas of Arabia is meeting with Kit Bond, minority chief in the Intelligence Committee, today. Blair, Obama's intelligence chief apparently proposed Freeman without consulting the White House, which is not defending Freeman much. What's the matter with Blair, and what's the matter with a White House that hasn't been involved yet in Freeman's pick?

A clown show. A dangerous clown show.
=======================

[Matt]

I would disagree about a Republican schism. I think people are once again realizing that if they don't act, they get the government they deserve. Obama is electrifying the opposition, and as he tries to do more damage, the opposition will grow.

His policies on abortion and choice by health care professionals to opt out, and the possibility that catholic hospitals may close, plus Pelosi's idiotic actions, are going to force Christians to oppose them; the Catholic Church is eventually going to go rip s*&t, and when that happens you'll see strong opposition from them and the evangelicals.

His whacked out energy policies are going to bite him in the ass. Ford announced that they think a significant percentage of their sales in 10 years will be electric. Guess what? They still need power, and the grid is going to be under even more pressure. Another joke. Solar and wind, which Obozo is banking on, are only going to be at most 15% of total power, and a difficult to manage, fluctuating part at best. he is killing the oil and coal sector. He killed Yucca Mountain, so no nuclear waste storage. Ask someone what he thinks of Obama when they lose power in mid-winter. He owns this one.

The consensus on the economy is becoming ever more clear, and when even Krugman and Whoopie Goldberg start complaining 6 weeks after their candidate was inaugurated, there goes more support.

The Republicans need to come up with a unified, principled message, and I think finally some of them are getting it. Limbaugh is simply saying what people are thinking. But he has the biggest megaphone right now, and if the office holders are smart, they will make nice.

I noticed that Snowe, Specter, and Collins are voting consistently with the dems as well, so they should probably be torpedoed as best as can be done.

[bad]

Schumer must be feeling the squeeze from New York's Jewish voters.

You now it sure ain't about principles. Dude ain't got none...

[Charlie (Colorado)]

Kim, what browser and operating system are you using?

[BR]

Chas of Arabia?
Chattel of China.
How costly?
In Amsterdam, a tradable commodity:
How much is that doggie... in the window?

[Annoying Old Guy]

PD;

It's projection again. The Modern American Left has lost the concept of debate or principled disagreement. For MALists, there is only consensus or schism.