Courting Warren

by Eric Martin

Is there any doubt that Summers and Geithner have been disastrously incompetent in terms of managing the economic downturn?  Not that Rahm helped much.

I can only hope that Simon Johnson is right, and that Geithner's opposition to Elizabeth Warren will prove his undoing.  Obama needs a financial team overhaul, or at least a reconfiguration of which individuals hold sway.

Kevin Drum has more on the Elizabeth Warren issue.  Obama should really do the right thing on this.

Comments

[MoZeu]

Is this a joke?

[MMonides]

An unsupported premise followed by reliance on an unsourced and in the process of being debunked hit piece ... Great blogging!

Worst blogpost evah.

[Eric Martin]

Um, do either of you care to make a substantive argument?

The "premise" was supported by links to pieces discussing actual decisions and positions by Summers and Geithner.

Debunked hit piece? By who? Where?

Is this a joke

Are you?

[Eric Martin]

FWIW, after some IP address-related research, it appears MMonides is one of our recurring troll infestations. Not sure about MoZeu

[Ugh]

I'll take a stab - I think some Geithner deputy/staffer ran to TPM or similar outfit to declare that Geithner is Warren's best friend, or something like that.

[Julian]

I'll take "Smart Nominations Obama Won't Make" for six hundred, Alex.

[Donald Johnson]

Glenn Greenwald had an update saying a Geithner aide denied that he opposed a Warren appointment, and then another update saying that the denial was misleading.

link

[Ugh]

DJ - thanks that's exactly where I read about the aide to Geithner.

[Son-Of-A-Banned]

[deleted - Ed.]

[Eric Martin]

Son of a: You really need to work on your reading comprehension skills.

Go back and read Lowrey's reference to Hoover and then come back and try again.

[jonnybutter]

Geithner has certainly been poor, but the real problem is, of course, Obama himself. Who appointed the guy in the first place (and kept him)?

Something I find just...well, weird, is some pols' evident insistence that adherence to their 'personal style' trumps the events they preside over. I don't single out Obama here - he's hardly the only one. But it's weird when you think about it, no? Isn't it the times/events themselves which call, for example, for no-drama, some-drama, etc. rather than the personality of the leader? It's no great news flash that politicians tend to be gigantic egoists, but it's still amazing sometimes.

"Obama should really do the right thing on this."

You mean, like resign?

Son-of-a-banned misses the good old days, when, instead of fairly competent high-end mediocre executive leadership, we had Armageddon-baiting - a screwing up of everything it was possible to screw up, and a lot of things nobody had thought you *could* screw up. McCain would've followed in that tradition, although he didn't have W's genius for sheer pointless destruction - who does?

The tone certainly sounds familiar...manic attempted humor, particularly. Hoover was in the closet and powerhungry, therefore, Warren...wha?

[liberal japonicus]

Given the unmistakable stench of homophobia in the comment, Son-of-a is probably getting Elizabeth Warren mixed up with Rick Warren...

then come back and try again.

Why keep inviting him back if he's been banned?

[Catsy]

DNFTT.

The older I get, the less patience I have for the effort required to give trolls the benefit of the doubt for the sake of "open" commentary.

Some people are just plainly uninterested in good faith engagement and are just tossing out flame-bait to derail conversation. Delete the most egregious troll comments, ban the IPs, and move on. It's like whack-a-mole, but it wastes far less time and energy than engaging the trolls and doesn't drag the thread down in the process of refuting the same horsesh1t over and over again.

[Donald Johnson]

yeah, why respond to "son of a banned" when it seems to be telling us it's someone who has been banned here before?

[Mike]

"Disasterously incompetent"? I don't understand how you are measuring competence or what different results you could have realistically expected. Disagree on policy, fine, but that's quite a different thing.

In any case, Elizabeth Warren is on the record praising Geithner and Obama's consistent support of the consumer protection agency, and Geithner's office is on the record praising Warren. The demand that Obama "must" appoint Warren or it will be proof that he has betrayed his base -- the kind of nonsense you read at the Huffington Post or Kos -- just serves to stri up opposition from the right and make Warren's confirmation from the Senate, if she's nominated, that much more difficult.

I like Warren, but I think there are numerous qualified candidates, and at the end of the day, one of them might be more qualified to run a large agency than Warren because of greater management experience. Obama is a deliberate man and I will leave it to him to decide, separate from all this political noise that accomplishes nothing productive (except to create another false controversy for cable news).

[Son-Of-A-Banned]

[deleted bunch of ad hominem spewage from someone who's not welcome to comment here - Ed.]

[wonkie]

I repudicate you, SOAB!

[Slartibartfast]

I guess we'll have to wait for son-of-a-son-of-a-banned to show up and repudicate you right back, wonkie.

[cleek]

i refudiate the SOaB.

[Eric Martin]

"Disasterously incompetent"? I don't understand how you are measuring competence or what different results you could have realistically expected. Disagree on policy, fine, but that's quite a different thing.

Huh? If a person advocates and implements policy A as opposed to policy B, and policy A is a failure, why would it be improper to label that person incompetent? Especially when he/she has a history of picking and implementing the wrong policies?

In any case, Elizabeth Warren is on the record praising Geithner and Obama's consistent support of the consumer protection agency, and Geithner's office is on the record praising Warren.

So? What does this mean? That Geithner is not opposing her appointment? Not really.

The demand that Obama "must" appoint Warren or it will be proof that he has betrayed his base -- the kind of nonsense you read at the Huffington Post or Kos -- just serves to stri up opposition from the right and make Warren's confirmation from the Senate, if she's nominated, that much more difficult.

You used quotation marks, but misquoted me. Please fix.

I like Warren, but I think there are numerous qualified candidates, and at the end of the day, one of them might be more qualified to run a large agency than Warren because of greater management experience. Obama is a deliberate man and I will leave it to him to decide

Nah, I'll still think for myself, thanks.

[wonkie]

I know that this is changing the subject, buut it is so funny that I had to share:

Shakespalin (from Twitter)

"To be, or not to be? That is the question that gets an unrelated answer." #shakespalin

5 minutes ago via Mobile Web 5 minutes ago via Twitterrific 2wo_2wo_5ive: RT @normative: To suffer the slings & arrows of outrageous liberals, or to quit halfterm, & by opposing, rake in speaking fees #shakespalin "

There's lots more.

[John Thullen]

This tweet from Lady Macbeth, Sarah Death Palin's campaign manager:

"Look like the innocent flower, but be the serpent under't"

Republican talking points as expressed by FOX's internal slogan"

"Fair is foul and foul is fair."

Sarah Death Palin's tweeted, twit wisdom regarding leadership:

"Caesar is a salad dressing, dude."

Hamlet's mother, after viewing SDP strutting the stage:

"The lady doth refudiate too much."

Sarah Death Palin's tax policy:

"Nothing can come of nothing."

Sarah Death Palin's energy policy:

"The world's mine oyster, which I with dipstick will open."

The Republican Presidential running mates in 2012:

"Eye of newt and toe of frog."

Shakespeare's opinion of Sarah Death Palin:

"a blinking idiot."

I'll be back with plenty of Iago quotes from Othello.

[John Thullen]

On searching for human sanity at Redcrap:

"Groping for trouts in a peculiar river." Measure for Measure

Sarah Death Palin on Ronald Reagan's legacy to the learing beast called the Rapublican Party:

"O Reagan, he hath tied Sharp-toothed unkindess like a vulture, here."

[Native New Yorker]

We can never be sure that the opinion we are endeavoring to stifle is a false opinion; and if we were sure, stifling it would be an evil still. ~John Stuart Mill, On Liberty, 1859

until next time