The confirmation of Ben S. Bernanke to a second four-year term as chairman of the Federal Reserve ran into further trouble on Friday as two more Democratic senators said they would vote against him.
The White House came to Mr. Bernanke’s defense, but the Senate majority leader, Harry Reid, appeared uncertain about whether there were the 60 votes necessary to confirm Mr. Bernanke before his term as chairman expires on Jan. 31. Mr. Reid said late Friday that while he planned to vote for Mr. Bernanke’s confirmation, his support was “not unconditional.”
Senator Christopher J. Dodd, Democrat of Connecticut and the chairman of the Banking Committee, warned Friday that a no vote would send the “worst signal to the market right now,” and could lead to an economic “tailspin.”
In a statement Friday morning, Senator Barbara Boxer, Democrat of California, came out against Mr. Bernanke, who was named to his post during the Bush administration. She said she had “a lot of respect” for him and praised him for preventing the economic crisis from getting even worse. “However, it is time for a change,” she said. “It is time for Main Street to have a champion at the Fed.”
Funny the difference one relatively obscure election can make.
Little to do with Taxachusetts. Bernanke was always a prime candidate to join dozens of others run over by the Obama bus, because punishing him is believed to advance their narrative that it really was all Bush’s fault.
Whilst there are some very good reasons for sending off Bernanke, the real source of the current troubles was the guy in charge of the New York branch of the Fed from 2003 to early ’09. That branch has one specific responsibility — to supervise the financial and equity markets — and that fellow failed more abysmally than Bernanke could ever dream of doing. Fortunately, he’s no longer head of the New York Fed.
Un-fortunately, he’s now Secretary of the Treasury.
Oh, you mean the tax cheat? That guy?