Orange Julius Versus Timmy

Looks like GOP House minority leader John Boehner has decided to move on from the SCARY GROUND ZERO MOSQUE to switching attack vectors to something that actually does matter and something that does deserve to hurt the Democrats: going after Obama's failed economic team in a speech in beleaguered Cleveland.

Boehner, delivering what his aides billed as a major economic address, will say President Obama's team lacks "real-world, hands-on experience" in creating jobs, according to a draft version of his speech that was released in advance. The Republican lawmaker plans to cite reports that some senior aides complained of "exhaustion," including the recently departed budget chief Peter Orszag.

"President Obama should ask for - and accept - the resignations of the remaining members of his economic team, starting with Secretary Geithner and Larry Summers, the head of the National Economic Council," Boehner says in the prepared remarks, which are scheduled for delivery at the City Club of Cleveland shortly after 8 a.m. The mass dismissal, he adds, "is no substitute for a referendum on the president's job-killing agenda. That question will be put before the American people in due time. But we do not have the luxury of waiting months for the president to pick scapegoats for his failing 'stimulus' policies."

Boehner's demand for the ousters of Geithner and Summers is likely to be met with derision in the West Wing, and denounced as mere electioneering less than 75 days before the midterm election. Calls for cabinet officials to be fired is nothing new for the party out of power -- during the Bush administration many Democrats called for the ouster of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, a demand that was not met until Democrats swept the 2006 midterms.

Boehner is seeking to personalize mounting concerns among voters about Obama's handling of the economic recovery. In his speech, he argues that Obama's advisers unfairly highlight brief signs of marginal improvement to suggest a coming surge in job creation.

"The American people are asking, 'where are the jobs?' and all the president's economic team has to offer are promises of 'green shoots' that never seem to grow," Boehner says, according to the text. "The worse things get, the more they circle the wagons and defend the indefensible." After the speech, he is scheduled to participate in a question-and-answer session with business leaders in this economically distressed Rust Belt city.

And you know what? I can't argue against Boehner here. I've called for Geithner's firing long ago. Hell, I objected to Geithner from day one. Larry Summers on the other hand needed to have been shown the door last year for his complete mishandling of the stimulus package. Both these men have been awful and with unemployment hovering around 9.5% and real unemployment approaching 25% in some counties, these guys have failed across the board in getting a real economic strategy in place.

This is unfortunately for the Dems a completely legitimate avenue of attack against Obama, and you're going to see a lot more of this as we head towards the fall.  I don't see how Obama can continue to defend Geithner or Summers for much longer given the jobs and housing picture.

As much as it causes physical pain for me to admit it, John Boenher is right.  These two need to be fired because they have failed.

[UPDATE] And as Atrios tweets:  

liberals have been pointing out shortcomings of geithner and summers for some time, only a righty can make it an issue

Sad but true.