Harkin Votes Against Geithner.

WASHINGTON, DC - Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA) released the following statement tonight after voting against Timothy Geithner to serve as Secretary of the U.S. Treasury. “I strongly believe that, save in extraordinary circumstances, the President should have the right to select his own team. President Obama believes that Mr. Geithner is the best person for this job, and it pains me to go against the President’s wishes on this matter. “I believe that Mr. Geithner is a person of obvious talent and experience, and I bear no ill will toward him whatsoever.

However, after careful deliberation, I simply could not overcome my very serious reservations about this nominee for two reasons. Mr. Geithner made serious errors of judgment in failing to pay his taxes, and he made serious errors in his job as chief regulator of the financial institutions at the heart of the current financial crisis.

This was the issue that the Republicans should have been screaming from the mountaintops from the day that Mr Giethner was nominated. But nooooo. They pussyfoot around his tax malfeasance while the Wallstreet genius claims that he can't figure out how to use Turbotax (Hell even I can use Turbotax, make me the Secretary) when the real issue is that his fingerprints are all over the economic meltdown. Meanwhile we are led to believe that he is the only one capable of leading the economy out of the crapper. This is the "you broke it you fix it" method of human resource management. In the real world he would have been fired NOT PROMOTED!~~

I can't believe I'm saying this but I agree with Tom Harkin. The president should have wide latitude when he sends his nominees to the senate for consent, be they cabinet appointees or judicial nominees, but the purpose of the exercise is to determine if the candidate for the office is qualified and of good character. Mr Giethner is neither. It took the likes of Democrat Tom Harkin to point that out and the Republicans that voted for him failed in their responsibilities.