On the very day that President Barack Obama expressed his "complete confidence" in Tim Geithner (can there be any more of a creepy Kiss Of Death?), Bloomberg is reporting that some Democratic lawmakers said Obama’s mishandling of the bonuses paid by AIG was just the latest in a series of missteps that have plagued his administration since the inauguration.
From Bloomberg:
"’The economic team has got to get its act together,’ said Senator Ron Wyden, an Oregon Democrat. ‘I want the team to begin to get to dealing with these issues in a coordinated way.’"
"The administration has ‘to accept some responsibility for where this thing is now,’ said Senator James Webb, a Virginia Democrat. Asked whether his confidence in Geithner has been undermined, Webb said, ‘I just don’t have a comment on that.’"
Ouch.
"Even Geithner defenders such as Representative Bill Pascrell of New Jersey said the secretary must accept some responsibility for the issue. Another supporter, Senator Richard Durbin of Illinois, the No. 2 Democratic leader in the chamber, said the outrage was fueled by the growing pressure on Geithner to turn around the economy. ‘He took over the job, it’s his watch,’" Pascrell said."
And we won’t even get into yesterday's Chris Dodd disaster – lying one day, giving us some truthiness the next, and all the while making it clear that Obama’s "outrage" was nothing more than a teleprompter tirade, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.
From Bloomberg:
"Several lawmakers said yesterday they were concerned the outrage over AIG would undermine public support for the Obama administration’s response to the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression.
The bonus decision 'may jeopardize our ability to get the majority of this Congress to support further largess, to provide funds, to prevent a recession, depression or meltdown,' Representative Paul Kanjorski, a Pennsylvania Democrat who heads the capital markets subcommittee, said as AIG Chairman Edward Liddy testified before his panel yesterday. "
Time for Obama to read another Important Speech On ______(TM) to the nation. The trouble is, those theater pieces work much better when you’re campaigning with no record than governing and making appointments.
Roll out that teleprompter!