Defending Geithner

If the GOP wanted Obama's new Treasury Secretary gone, they could take him down in a heartbeat. But the fact of the matter is the GOP loves the guy.

Was he cheating on his taxes or just sloppy with his finances? Lawmakers vetting the nomination of Timothy F. Geithner to serve as Treasury secretary say they may never be sure. But leading Republicans nonetheless joined Democrats in leaping to his defense yesterday, calling Geithner's tax gaffes small potatoes compared with his qualifications for saving the global economy.

Sen. Orrin G. Hatch (Utah), the second-most senior Republican on the Senate Finance Committee, which is charged with reviewing Geithner's nomination, called him "brilliant" and "honest" and said that, despite his tax errors, "I don't think we can get a better person for this position. . . . He has the kind of background that should be very helpful to us at this time."

Sen. Robert F. Bennett (R-Utah), a close associate of Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), said: "If I was a traffic officer, I'd say he may have exceeded the speed limit, but he wasn't weaving out of lanes, he wasn't drunk and he wasn't endangering anybody. He may have some explaining to do, but in the end, I think he's going to be just fine."

As a matter of fact, everything you need to know about Tim Geithner in general is that his situation has caused Hugh Hewitt to defend Obama on the grounds that "A president deserves his cabinet choices because he has won the election and been charged with executing the laws".

If Hugh is making actual logical sense in a column, there is something fundamentally wrong in the universe. The reason the GOP want Geithner around is because they honestly believe he's Hank Paulson with better press.