So This, Too, Is Change?

Larry Kudlow had a priceless response to Tim Geithner's hearings for appointment as incoming Treasury Secretary.

After pointing out the lack of credibility Geithner will always have for being a tax cheat and scofflaw, even to the point of fencing with and dancing around a direct answer to a US Senator, John Kyle (R-AZ), Kudlow bore in on a more glaring weakness.

Time and again, when quizzed on what he will actually do differently, i.e., what 'change' he will bring, to addressing problems in the financial services sector, Geithner basically said, 'we're working on it.'

Kudlow blew up and observed, to paraphrase him,

'Working on it? C'mon, Geithner's had months to figure this out and come up with a detailed plan. What's he been doing all this time, playing dress up in front of a mirror for the inaugural ball?'

Larry makes an excellent point. Wonderboy's team of new 'change' mavens was supposed to be ready to fix all American problems on day one. So what's Geithner's excuse?

Maybe he was, ah, writing checks for back taxes to the IRS, and didn't have time to come up with a plan to fix the financial sector?

Honestly, one can go further in criticizing Geithner. He was part of the current 'solution,' hip deep in the decisions regarding Bear Stearns, Lehman, AIG, et. al. And, really, beyond that, Geithner has never been accused of being a 'big idea' man.

Rather, he is sort of an operations guy. He's head of the NY Fed, but doesn't command the sort of awe that his predecessors, Corcoran and Volcker did.

Finally, I listened to part of Volcker's opening remarks on Geithner's nomination. I confess to having trouble believing, in a nation of over 300 million people, that only Tim Geithner can be Treasury Secretary. There's nobody else with sufficient experience, judgment and without Geithner's tax problems?

This is just hard to swallow. Even from Tall Paul.

As I noted in this post, I'm leery of men on horseback, and Geithner seems to become more like one with each passing day.

He'd damn well better be worth it.