Lawrence H. Summers’s prospects of becoming chairman of the Federal Reserve have become murkier since three key Democratic senators signaled in recent days that they would oppose his nomination.
Senator Jon Tester, Democrat of Montana and a member of the Banking Committee, said on Friday that he would vote against sending Mr. Summers’s nomination to the full Senate for a confirmation vote. Two of Mr. Tester’s fellow Democrats on the committee, Senators Jeff Merkley of Oregon and Sherrod Brown of Ohio, have also signaled through their aides that they would vote no.
Such resistance complicates matters for Mr. Summers because without the votes of those three Democrats, he would need Republican support on the Banking Committee, where Democrats have a three-vote majority. The panel holds the first vote on any nominee to lead the Fed.
It is not clear how the rest of the committee might vote. Senator Elizabeth Warren, Democrat of Massachusetts, is believed to be reluctant to support Mr. Summers but has not said publicly how she would vote.
I can't imagine that Warren would be a yes either under any circumstances. That means Summers may be sunk before he even gets a vote in the full Senate. If that's true, the message to President Obama is "don't bother to nominate him at all."
That's a message I happen to agree with.
[UPDATE] WSJ is now reporting that Summers has withdrawn his name from consideration.
WSJ: Larry Summers withdraws name for Fed chair pic.twitter.com/u0HVsUwPBb
— E McMorris-Santoro (@EvanMcSan) September 15, 2013
Story here.
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