Why I’m not buying this whole “fire Geithner” thing from the GOP

( – promoted by buhdydharma )

Has Treasury Secretary, Timothy Geithner, done a good job so far?  Kinda, I wouldn’t give him a gold star or anything.  In fact, I’d say he’s done a mediocre job.  Did he know about the whole bonus thing at AIG?  And what about how the situation that went down with Lehman Brothers?  Bottom line, is the GOP push to have Geithner removed legit?  I say no.

I know what you’re going to say.  “But Venom, he knew about the bonuses, and essentially put Sen. Dodd on the spot because of his actions.”  Yeah, he did, and frankly its a major screw up on his part, and now Dodd (who in my opinion is a good man) has to cover his own ass here.  Geithner also was instrumental in letting Lehman Brothers fail.  A move, that now many are thinking may have made the situation worse.  Whether letting Lehman live would have turned out as a good thing, even as a “zombie bank,” we’ll never know.  And Secretary Geithner hasn’t really been forthcoming with the press and the public in what the Administration has got in mind.  In fact, you could say they don’t really know and you get the idea that plans change from week to week.

So yeah, there are a lot of bad marks on the man.  But the gang at Swindlers’ Inc (my name for the Republicans and many stripes of conservatives) has another reason to bring down Geithner.  Remember this, we are coming off from 8 years of not just incompetence, but extremely BAD incompetence not seen since probably a certain Roman emperor fiddled while a city burned.  The public doesn’t trust the Republicans right now. How the thinking is now:

GOP = Bad governance, Bad economy, death

This is a powerful meme that has taken hold on the country, and I say rightly so!  The Republicans, indeed Reaganomics, has shown to be the shallow not-so-fast-in-the-head economic policy that it really was.  People, many claim, have short memories, well the statue of limitations this time is just north of 8 years.  And within this near decade, all they saw was fraud, fake prosperity, and when things started to get out of control they saw a government that put it’s fingers in its ears and went “nah nah nah nah nah…I’m not hearing this…things are good…nah nah nah.” The writing was on the wall, everyone was calling it, and the government ignored it.  The people know this and the Right is aware of that fact.  So it’s damage control, and the only defense they know is to go on the offensive.

What better way than to destabilize this administration and then point out and say “see…not even a 100 days and he can’t keep a stable cabinet!”  Despite what you may hear from the likes of say Newt Gingrich, the various talking heads on CNBC or Fox Business News (does anyone really watch that channel??) or even Bloomberg, keep this in mind when you see a conservative…it’s about the politics not the economics.  How do I know this, because if they really cared about the economy, they know full well to remove a Treasury Secretary now in this sensitive time would cause chaos.  

The government is putting the finishing touches on what it hopes will be the final plans to fix the banks.  To remove Geithner now would be to put things on hold.  It would take time to get a new person to fill his shoes.  Time, which the economy doesn’t have.  You may see some cheers from some greedy bastards, but then reality will dawn and people will start to holler “ok do something now.”  Well this requires massive coordination, Obama may be a smart and capable man, but he even admits this is a team effort.  He needs a team on the ground now, to lay down certain new foundations.  Any stoppage in this would cause chaos, and the Republicans know this.

Listen to the rants by those on the Right.  90% hasn’t been about stuff Geithner and others have put forth to rebuild banking in this country.  It has been about the AIG bonuses.  It has been about his coordinated moves with then Bush-Treasury Secretary Paulson on killing Lehman.  But mainly its been about the bonuses.  People hate that these losers are getting something they clearly don’t deserve.  The Republicans, being the sharks that they are, smell that blood in the water, and are aiming their sights on Geithner.  Is it about economics? No…it’s about politics!

Do you really expect the Republicans in Congress to immediately approve whomever the President pics as a replacement? No, they will grandstand and use this as an opportunity to mock the Administrations promises of change, Limbaugh would go on the air saying “see folks, this is the change they promised, more instability!”  This was a setup from the get go.  The Republicans know that a vaccuum would cause problems, and concern with our creditors. All their actions are for one thing, to discredit the Democrats and establish a platform for them to retake Congress in 2010.