Aiming At The Wrong Target

by JASmius

It is said that when the Klingon High Council executes a fellow Klingon (they don't have it done, they whip out their dk'taghs and do it themselves), a true warrior will not fall until the seventh impaling.

That would make "Turbotax" Timmy Geithner a most unlikely disciple of Kahless. But then, the House GOP isn't exactly the Klingon High Council, either:

House Speaker John Boehner and several other prominent members of Congress want Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner to quit or be fired.



But Geithner, who had considered stepping down after the government borrowing limit was raised, confirmed on Sunday that he will remain at his post at President Barack Obama's request.



"I love my work. And I think if a president asks you to serve, you have to do it," Geithner told NBCCCP/CNBCCCP in an interview.



With the U.S. unemployment rate above nine percent and the economy still scarred by crisis, "we still have a lot of work to do", he added.

Like they haven't done enough already. I want to hear a losing football coach say that the next time he's asked about the possibility of being fired. I mean, did Rich Kotite defiantly go before the press after his second consecutive 2-14 season with the New York Jets and declare his intention to stay on as coach because his 4-28 record "show[s] that I still have a lot of work to do"?

Geithner had indicated he might leave after a debt-ceiling increase was approved, partly because his family was returning to New York, where his son is planning to attend his final year of high school this autumn.



But administration officials had signaled that both Obama and White House chief of staff William Daley had urged him not to leave now.

The Regime needs at least one spear-catcher for its disastrous economic policies now that even Austin Goolsbee, the National Economic Council Chair who succeeded Christina Rohmer after SHE bailed a year ago, is also fleeing to the exit (stage left, natch), following Larry Summers' departure. If Geithner left, all there'd be is....an empty podium. Which would be better than what we've got now.

But have no fear, folks. In just a short time, Geithner will be out there saying that the Obamapression is all Italy's fault:

Sentiment is growing in the German government that Europe cannot bail out Italy because its economy is just too big and will require more aid than anyone can handle, German weekly Der Spiegel reports.



The $625 billion European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF) can help smaller countries only, the publication says, as reported by the AFP newswire.



"The weekly said the German government is insisting that Italy resolve its debt problems on its own and that the EFSF is intended only to rescue smaller economies within the eurozone," the AFP reports.

Of course, Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's center-right coalition is promising to eliminate its 120%-of-GDP debt by 2013. Probably pie in the sky, but at least they'll be moving in the right direction. What'll be Red Barry's excuse once he finishes driving our beleagured nation into the fiscal ditch? Or will he even need one?

[cross-posted at Hard Starboard]