The Senate has passed him through. I’m sure he will do as good a job for Obama as he did for Bush, Bernanke and Paulson.
Update: 4 Democrats voted against.
Byrd
Harkin
Feingold
Sanders (well, sort of a Dem)
Feingold’s reasoning after the jump
Statement of U.S. Senator Russ Feingold
In Opposition to the Nomination of Timothy Geithner to be the Next Secretary of the Treasury
January 26, 2009"I voted against the nomination of Timothy Geithner to be the next Secretary of the Treasury with some reluctance. President Obama, like any other President, is entitled to have the Cabinet he wants, barring serious disqualifying issue, and Mr. Geithner is a very able nominee in many ways. And while I am troubled by Mr. Geithner’s track record on some of the issues that have contributed to the credit market crisis, I do not base my vote on what is, to a certain extent, a matter of policy disagreement.
"Mr. Geithner’s tax liability is a different matter, however. I am deeply troubled by his failure to pay the payroll taxes he owed, despite repeated alerts from his employer at the time, the International Monetary Fund, that he was responsible for paying those taxes. Moreover, his earlier interactions with the Internal Revenue service over his failure to pay sufficient payroll taxes for his household employees make Mr. Geithner’s explanations of his failure to pay his own payroll taxes even less satisfactory. The failure to comply with our nation’s tax laws would be problematic for any Cabinet nominee, but it is especially disturbing when it involves the individual who will be charged with overseeing the enforcement of our tax laws.
"With the condition the economy is in, and the state of our country’s financial institutions, the stakes could not be greater for the next Treasury Secretary. While I could not support his nomination, I respect Mr. Geithner’s abilities and I look forward to working with him to address the serious problems facing our country."



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Yer quick!
I just informed the gang downstairs!
LOL!
I got beat down there too!
I take it you don’t have the highest regard for this guy, Ian!
Sweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeettt …
Suck It Repubs …
Now I get to skip paying my taxes this year …
President Obama 2013 …
Scary, Ian.
Yer shakin’ my confidence here.
Oh goodie, another closet repuke gets his hands on our money. I’m so thrilled. NOT.
His official swearing in to take place at top of hour. Obama enroute to Treasury Dept
Geith’s cred is already shot. If he’d been honest and said that he knew what he’d done with his taxes, instead of playing dumb, at least we might think he was smart enough for the job. What are we to think of him? We have a dumb ass that can’t do his own taxes as our treasury sec?
To say nothing of his – disproven thru all Republican adminstrations – Ayn Rand economic theories.
I personally think he’ll be OK. I’m still livid, absolutely livid, over the congressional rethug support of Romney’s stimulus plan, where he calls for pretty much only three measures: more tax cuts for the rich, military spending over infrastructure, and breaking the unions.
He sounds like someone who doesn’t pay much attention to detail. And his tax excuses, lame.
Dean Baker on the NewsHour now. The guy he is on with talked about reducing marginal tax rates, stimulate the economy, make the rich richer, etc.
Woderful but please take the tax money he owes out of his check.
jo6pac
The race to the bottom continues.
Blub,
Why no follow the Romney plan? It’s worked so well for the last 40 years!
Jesus, will we never get a break from hearing the same old shit over and over again.
I forgot which humor magazine had this great bit a long, long time ago; MAD, I think? Where this kid writes an essay in 3rd grade about what he did that summer – spend on his Granparent’s pig farm.
And then from then on, every essay he writes, from JHS, to HS, to College, to his Master’s, to his Doctorate Degree is the same essay, with a few changes.
That’s the Conservative agenda since Washington’s time… The same pig shit decade after decade.
ENOUGH!!!
Feingold???
the senator known for giving wide latitude to the president’s choices? well, maybe he’s learned from being burned a few times during the last few years…
Yeah that struck me too.
Can’t get very enthused … you’re being polite. I am thoroughly disgusted by Obama’s choices for critical positions (economic and DOJ especially) and was hoping some would not be confirmed.
When Obama fails we all will pay the price (particularly those on the lower rungs of the economic ladder) and it will also be touted as the failure of a liberal agenda no matter the lack of evidence. Granted we can’t fall as far as we have in the last 8 years but what’s the saying … it’s not the fall but the abrupt landing at the end.
As long as no one was killed or hurt. Or did drugs. It’s only money.
lol ian! i want to know if i can “forget” to pay $30,000 on my taxes if i can still get a cabinet post…
Sorry, gang….. I think this guy really, really sucks.
more than summers?
same here, lame-O
He even looks shifty.