Geithner tax and housekeeper problems jolt Obama
By TOM RAUM
Associated Press
January 14, 2009
Page 2 of 2
"These are very smart people. But they're not reading the politics carefully," said Paul C. Light, professor of government and public service at New York University. "They've allowed themselves to be backed into a corner by a disgraced governor of Illinois and hoodwinked by several of their own nominees and perhaps by their own hubris."
Obama's team may be brilliant and experienced, "but what they lack is common sense," Light said.
On a less consequential matter, Obama also stumbled when he failed to notify incoming Senate Intelligence Committee Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., that he was about to name fellow Californian Leon Panetta, who had been President Bill Clinton's budget director and chief of staff after a long congressional career, to the job of CIA director. Although popular and experienced as an administrator, Panetta lacked an intelligence background and the surprise selection put Feinstein in a difficult position.
The jarring bumps in the road to Obama's inauguration are "really quite stunning for a transition team that has so carefully studied everything that might go wrong, and which was faultless up until about a week ago," said Stephen Hess, an authority on presidential transitions at the Brookings Institution.
The disclosures on Richardson and Geithner are "stunning news," Hess said. "And coming so close to the inauguration, it's harder to put the pieces back together."
Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., said Tuesday after a closed-door committee meeting on the subject that, while he was disappointed with the new information, Geithner had taken steps necessary to fix the problems, and the mistakes he made "do not rise to a level of disqualification."
But the panel's senior Republican, Sen. Charles Grassley of Iowa, raised questions about the disclosures.
Geithner may have one thing going for him: The public may be more far more concerned about the economy at this point than over the would-be treasury secretary's past mistakes.
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EDITOR'S NOTE -- Tom Raum has covered Washington for The Associated Press since 1973, including five presidencies.
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