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Little Timmy Is Stuck in the Well

March 22, 2009 - 10:04 am - by Stephen Green

I know this assessment is coming from an evil Republican thug, but still:

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner is on “shaky grounds” these days with Congress and many in the country, according to the Senate Banking Committee’s top Republican.

Sen. Richard Shelby said Sunday he doesn’t think Geithner will last long unless he starts doing a better job.

Riddle me this, Batman — who is the shortest time a cabinet-level official has served a new administration before being forced out? And is it too late for Geithner to beat the record?

And as the last guy left at Treasury, will Geithner please remember to turn off the light on his way out the door?

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7 Comments, 7 Threads

  1. 1. Kenny

    “(W)ill Geithner please remember to turn off the light on his way out the door?”

    No. Such an economic approach to things would SAVE money and resources, contra to every piece of demonstrable data we have on the guy.

    March 22, 2009 - 11:06 am   Link to this Comment
  2. 2. w b h

    http://speedexplainer.slate.com/

    Rapid Departures Who has left the Cabinet in a hurry?
    By Marc TracyPosted Friday, Dec. 12, 2008

    …
    Those serving recess appointments, in which an outgoing president appoints a placeholder until the incoming president’s nominee is confirmed, have lasted by far the shortest amounts of time. For example, President Lyndon B. Johnson’s final Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, Robert Wood, lasted all of two weeks in the job before being replaced by President Richard M. Nixon’s choice, George Romney (father of Mitt); President-elect Barack Obama’s nominee for attorney general, Eric Holder, Jr., served in that position for just under two weeks in 2001 while the U.S. Senate confirmed John Ashcroft….

    March 22, 2009 - 2:47 pm   Link to this Comment
  3. 3. Stephen Green

    WBH –

    The question wasn’t about end-of-term placeholders, but new guys serving a new administration.

    March 22, 2009 - 2:49 pm   Link to this Comment
  4. 4. NukemHill

    Heck, Geithner’s already lasted longer than President Harrison, so he’s got that going for him.

    March 22, 2009 - 3:18 pm   Link to this Comment
  5. 5. Frank Martin

    Does Secretary of Commerce ( for 48 hours )Gregg qualify for this contest? I was never entirely clear on his status.

    I think we should start an “office pool’, everyone puts in a buck and picks a date and an excuse, closest to the actual date and excuse wins the kitty.

    I pick next Friday, right around 2:00 PM Eastern.
    Excuse? To be “closer to his family”, not comfortable with the commute to Washington and the stress on his kids, something along that vein.

    I expect to see leaks of ‘family health matters’ and a sudden rise in the number of “who will be the next secretary of treasury” stories preceding the actual date of departure, which in my mind is already a dead certainty.

    March 22, 2009 - 3:53 pm   Link to this Comment
  6. 6. Brad

    Gregg never got to the confirmation stage, so he never served as sec comm

    March 23, 2009 - 11:02 am   Link to this Comment
  7. 7. The Sheep Nazi

    Boy, they sure don’t make flameout Cabinet secretaries like they used to.

    March 24, 2009 - 12:01 am   Link to this Comment