Obama’s Wounded Treasury Man
Posted in Main Blog (All Posts) on January 28th, 2009 5:40 am by HL
Obama’s Wounded Treasury Man
Over a third of the Senate voted against Tim Geithner’s confirmation as Treasury secretary, though he did pass the test by 60 to 34 early Monday evening. That is the closest post-WWII margin for a Treasury secretary. According to Bloomberg, seven of the last 23 Treasury-secretary nominees — under which actual Senate roll-call votes were taken — were confirmed by an average vote margin of 95 to one. (The others were confirmed without an official vote count.) Interestingly, three Democrats voted against: Tom Harkin of Iowa, Robert Byrd of West Virginia, and Russ Feingold of Wisconsin. Independent Bernie Sanders also voted no. Noteworthy on the Republican side, Susan Collins of Maine voted against Geithner, accusing him of “inexcusable negligence” in his non-payment of taxes ($43,000) during his IMF days. Arlen Specter told reporters early on Monday that he would vote yes, but he changed his mind and voted no. Robert Byrd, by the way, captured the sentiments of John Kyl, Jim Bunning, and many others when he said: “Had [Geithner] not been nominated for Treasury secretary, it’s doubtful that he would have ever paid these taxes.”
