GOPers Call For Geithner's Head, While (Some) Dems Say Hold the Pitchforks
Racked by negative coverage of its new chairman and its de facto talk-radio leader, the GOP is in need of a cause to rally around -- and it's found one in the storm of public anger over AIG.
Rep. Connie Mack (FL) today became the first Republican to call for Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner's resignation over the AIG bonuses controversy, a call quickly seconded by Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA). House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) took the middle ground by warning ominously that Geithner is "on thin ice."
Of course, Republican outrage at Geithner is to be expected. It's the lukewarm support coming from Democrats that should most concern the Obama administration.
Senate Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd (D-CT), facing a strong challenger in his re-election race next year, released a statement yesterday that unabashedly blamed the Treasury Department for watering down the executive-compensation proposal he attached to last month's stimulus bill. "I agreed to a modification in the legislation, reluctantly," Dodd told CNN today.
Another Democratic senator who's been a staunch Obama ally, Ron Wyden (OR), exposed a sad truth of Capitol Hill culture by speaking openly about the administration's lack of enthusiasm for his bonus taxation plan -- a plan that could have prevented the AIG bonuses mess. As Wyden told the Politico:
Sen. Snowe and I put a lot of hours into that effort. We had a bipartisan provision that in my view would have set up a huge disincentive for somebody paying out bonuses like was done in the AIG case. We had a bipartisan provision that in my view would have set up a huge disincentive for somebody paying out bonuses like was done in the AIG case. We both pushed very hard to persuade the Obama economic team to go along with our approach, and unfortunately we weren't able to convince them.
If Geithner is looking for any voices of reason on the Hill today, he might do well to eye the House Judiciary Committee. Members of that panel hastily took up a leadership-backed bill today that would authorize the attorney general to claw back the AIG bonuses, but Democrats are already openly questioning whether the legislation is constitutional.
Josh
Matt
Eric
Brian
Well, golly, I hope they won't let any silly old womanish vaporing about constitutionality keep them from going after the evildoers! After all, it's just a goddamned piece of paper, right? These AIG people are evil and caused a calamity. They don't deserve constitutional protection.
March 18, 2009 6:37 PM | Reply | Permalink
You are joking right?
March 18, 2009 7:33 PM | Reply | Permalink
Good grief! Could we ask for just a tidbit of skepticism on the part of the TPM reporters instead of this "deer in the headlight" worshipping of every Congress critter?
Expect the grandstanding and stretching of the truth like it was a rubber band. A little cynicism is in order.
March 18, 2009 7:49 PM | Reply | Permalink
GEITHNER & RANGEL TO BE SUBPOENAED IN TAX FRAUD CASE
Federal Case Alleges Political Elite Get Favorable Tax Treatment Over Ordinary Citizens
On 5 March 2009 a Motion was filed in U.S. v. David Jacquot, Case # CR 08-1171, in the Federal District Court, in San Diego, California seeking to dismiss a false tax return indictment on the grounds that the Defendant was not treated in the same manner as politically prominent individuals. A hearing on this matter is set for 30 March 2009 in San Diego and the Defendant in this case intends to subpoena Secretary of the Treasury Timothy Geithner, House Ways and Means Chairman Charles Rangel, former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, and others.
The Defendant in this case is David Jacquot, an attorney and retired Army Officer. He is a decorated disabled Desert Storm veteran living in rural Idaho with his family.
This “Geithner Motion” cites HR 735 titled the “Rangel Rule Act of 2009,” which if enacted, would eliminate penalties and interest for common citizens to allow them to be treated in the same manner as House Ways and Means Chairman Representative Charles Rangel. The Geithner Motion also quotes President Obama stressing the need to “treat common citizens in the same manner as politically prominent individuals in regards to tax matters”.
The Geithner Motion details how Mr. Jacquot was vindictively indicted in retaliation for his successful defense of his clients against the IRS. The tax returns of his corporate law firm for the four (4) years of 2001 to 2004 were investigated and the government alleges that the law firm declared almost $200,000 TOO MUCH income during this time period. The Geithner Motion contains descriptions of numerous actions by the government and Assistant U.S. Attorney (AUSA) Faith Devine that are the basis for the claim of retaliation against Mr. Jacquot for his zealous representation of his client’s Constitutional and statutory rights. The improper actions of AUSA Devine have been reported to the DOJ Office of Professional Responsibility for disciplinary action and are currently under review.
A copy of the Geithner Motion can be downloaded at:
www.jacquotlaw.com/vindictive-prosecution.html
Geithner Motion | Rangel Rule
March 18, 2009 8:30 PM | Reply | Permalink
Let us pretend, just for the sake of argument mind you, that Geithner is really smart and that he is doing his job well without cronyism for his past financial world connections. That is to say he is everything we would want a brilliant Treasury Secretary to be. Can anybody piece together a viable scenario for his apparent inaction and weakness?
The only thing I can come with is there is some kind of strategy/negotiations/planning going on. And if it fails, it would be the economic equivalent of Invasion of Normandy failing. And like the planning for Invasion of Normandy it needs to be completely secret until it is unveiled.
I don't mean to imply there is an economic enemy equivalent to Hitler - only that should the Invasion of Normandy failed, catastrophe would have probably ensued.
Anybody else have any thought?
March 19, 2009 11:08 AM | Reply | Permalink
Poor Tim Geithner, my heart really bleeds for him.
His predicament is rather akin to the case of the hunter being hunted.
In fact, he committed a grave error of judgment in exchanging his cushy job at the New York Federal Reserve (that was his former perch, if I am not mistaken) where he could hobnob and chum with the denizens in the den of thieves, aka the Wall Street for the dubious distinction of a cabinet post in another similar den , aka washington, D.C. He ought to have anticipated that he would be damned if he did, damned if he didn't as the Treasury Secretary under the present precarious circumstances. Any success he manages to score, if at all, will automatically go to the score card of his boss, the Prez and, for any failure (a scenario much more likely), he will be hauled over calls by every passer-by in the street. Of course, there will be the customary "vote of complete confidence" from the Prez every now and then relyed through the White House spokesperson until he is eased out eventually in the wake of the gathering storm demanding his resignation.
I am sure that Geithner is regretting now, every minute of his waking hours, his fateful mistake in taking that call from Obama on that wintry night asking whether he would be keen on joining his team!
March 20, 2009 12:17 AM | Reply | Permalink