Tim Geithner Funds Hamas: US Treasury Opens Avenue for Funding Hamas

If you have any doubt of this administration's Muslim sympathies, you can lose that right now. The U.S. Treasury has allowed the terrorist organization, Hamas, to begin receiving funds from around the world, by removing all names of Hamas terrorists from the International terror list, except one, Musa Abu Marzouk. This was an unnecessary action, as an international lawsuit to stop this was a considered possibility.

The original report came from Arutz Sheva, an Israeli online news site. So far, blogs are hot on the story, but a search of Google News reveals no main stream media, anywhere, reporting. Thanks to Infidels are Cool for the heads up.

You might remember that Barack Obama's pastor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright, printed Marzouk's Palestinian manifesto in his Sunday church bulletin on July 10, 2007. Marzouk was arrested at JFK airport in July 1995, and eventually evicted from the country. He is an American-educated Ph.D. with many aliases, among them: Moussa Abu Marzouk, Musa Abu Marzuq, and Musa Abu Marzook. He is believed to be operating out of Damascus, but was born in Gaza. Marzouk's terrorist connections are so obvious even Tim Geithner could not remove his name. How many American taxpayer dollars are streaming to Hamas bank accounts?

Here's the Israeli media's report. I hope you will read it all:

(IsraelNN.com) The United States Treasury has taken all but one member of Hamas off the international list of terrorists, thus enabling funds from the European Union to enter Hamas-controlled Gaza.

It is an open secret that large sums of money from the EU flow into Gaza in the guise of humanitarian aid and salaries for officials, but are actually funneled into the coffers of Hamas, which controls Gaza with an iron grip. This method of transferring funds into terrorists' hands could have been blocked by an international lawsuit, but according to journalist Avi Tarango, the United States Treasury has made this impossible by removing all but one Hamas man – Deputy Chairman of the Political Bureau, Musa Abu Marzouk – from the list of international terrorists.

The updated terrorist list, published last week, takes up 443 pages. However, according to Tarango, who went over the list, none of the tens of thousands of people who form Hamas is mentioned – other than Abu Marzuk, who resides in Damascus. The terrorist list is meant for distribution in the world banking system, where the transfer of funds to anyone on the list is prohibited.

Cleared for FundingAbu Marzouk is listed as having been born in Gaza on February 9, 1951, and as bearing an Egyptian passport with the number 92/664. “While branches of Hamas appear in the list under different names, such as 'The Students of Ayash,' 'The Muslim Brotherhood in Gaza,' 'The Iz A-Din El-Kassam Battalions,' the rest of Hamas's men do not appear on the list at all,” Tarango said.

"Musa Abu-Marzouk's presence on the list means that whoever tries to transfer money to him personally will be rejected by the world banking system and be accused of funding terrorism, but the transfer of funds to any other Hamas man will not arouse suspicion,” he explained.

According to published reports and other sources, the journalist said, the EU sends millions of Euros every month to cover the salaries of 77,000 employees of the Palestinian Authority and about 70,000 recipients of welfare aid in Gaza.

 “EU laws define Hamas as a terror organization and therefore the EU people need to verify on a name-by-name basis that none of the people receiving salaries and support is a terrorist,” Tarango said. “This is done by the EU's cash transfer mechanism, PEGASE, which verifies that none of the recipients of salaries are members of Hamas's police force or activists of the military wing of Hamas, by comparing the names as received from the PA treasury department with the list of international terror activists. However, since the newly-updated list contains no Hamas officials except for Marzouk, the European check will find nothing and the funds for Gaza salaries will be transferred in whole to the Gaza banks.” 

Others talking about the US Treasury and Gaza/Hamas:

The Global Muslim Brotherhood Daily Report
Creeping Sharia
Weasel Zippers

Related:
Jeremiah Wright Publishes CAIR Founder's Manifesto

Linked by The Post and Mail - Thank you!

Tim Geithner Out? Jamie Dimon In? Jamie Dimon Tim Geithner Replacement?

Last week, in a meeting of the Joint Economic Committee, Republican Kevin Brady (Texas) asked Treasury Secretary, Timothy Geithner, if he would resign "for the sake of our jobs." Michael Burgess (R-Texas) told Geithner, face-to-face, "I don't think you should fired, I think you should have never been hired." And in a television interview, Democrat Peter DeFazio (Oregon) said America needs a new economic team.

Jamie Dimon

We have reports out from Bloomberg and the New York Post speculating that J.P. Morgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon might be a replacement for Geithner, although most believe such a move will be "a stretch."

People familiar with Dimon's thinking said he "would love to serve his country," and in recent weeks Dimon has had a noticeably higher profile in Washington, making frequent visits to government officials and earlier this month publishing an op-ed in the Washington Post that makes the case for letting large institutions that take big risks collapse rather than receive government aid.

It appears that Jamie Dimon has a close personal relationship with Barack Obama, has known him for a very long time, and is a "frequent" visitor to the White House, although the official White House visitor logs released recently, only shows Dimon on the premises twice.

From Bloomberg: Dimon’s Missteps

Not that he hasn’t stumbled. When the housing collapse started, for example, Dimon viewed it as an opportunity to expand in the California market for jumbo mortgages. He was also slow to exit the business of purchasing mortgages originated by outside brokers.

Nevertheless, Dimon has maintained a stronger stronger balance sheet than rivals. JPMorgan’s tangible common shareholders equity was 3.4 percent of assets at the end of last year. This has become a key measure of balance-sheet health for investors. While not necessarily stellar, JPMorgan’s level compares with about 2.7 percent at Wells Fargo Co., Isecond biggest after JPMorgan in market value among U.S. banks.

Peter DeFazio Tim Geithner: Michael Burgess Tim Geithner: Kevin Brady Tim Geithner:

Democrat Congressman Peter DeFazio (Oregon) told MSNBC that America needs a new economic team. Even Chuck Schumer says "the world economy is at stake"  Congressmen Kevin Brady (R-TX), Sam Brownback (R-KS), and Michael Burgess (R-TX) actually spoke the minds of the American people. See video below.

 

Peter DeFazio

Rep. DeFazio appeared on The Edge and was asked:

Should he [Geithner] stay in his job, Congressman?

[DeFazio] No. We need a new economic team that cares more about jobs, Main Street and the American people, than it does about Wall Street and about huge bonuses.

Rep. Kevin Brady to Tim Geithner:

"for the sake of our jobs will you step down from your post?" "This is your budget, your bailout, your act."

Geitner's only answer was a haughty "I agree with almost nothing you said."

After Geithner blamed Bush for an "economy falling off the cliff, Brady asked:

Remind me Mr. Secretary, what post were you holding when President Bush left office?

Geithner: I was the president of the Federal Reserve in New York.

Rep. Michael Burgess:

I don't think you should be fired, I thought you should have never been hired.

Republicans, especially when appearing on C-SPAN, as they did here, should be talking about what brought the economy down, just a mere two months before the election. Barney Frank, Chris Dodd and Maxine Waters should be mentioned in every conversation about the economy. We should be relentless in pointing out that, without the housing bust, brought on by Frank, Dodd and Waters, the American people and Wall Street would not be in the middle of the struggle we have today. A reminder:

Barney Franks - recipient of $40,000 from Fannie Mae since 1989: Allegedly sleeping with head of Fannie Mae, Herb Moses, probably didn't have a thing to do with his complicity in the failure of housing. Right? Franks stood on the the floor of the House and railed against all Bush proposals to rein-in the wobbly companies.

Franks said the problems of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were "exaggerated, and five years later, the "problem" was estimated to be in the hundreds of billions.

Let's talk about Maxine Waters - not as guilty as Barney Frank...she is simply one foolish woman, but you can bet her constituents received the Community Reinvestment Loans, and you can bet some couldn't afford them, and you can bet that she was well aware of the situation. See Barney and Maxine here.

Maybe you haven't thought of the criminal actions of Mary Schapiro, appointed by President Bush, the former head of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority who did not regulate, even when she had a whistleblower turning blue in the face from blowing the darn thing. What did Obama do, he promoted her - all the way to the Security and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chief. J.C., Obama promoted her!!! All that regulating she was paid very big money to exercise, was over the SEC. You can read more on this here, and see an excellent video about the obscenities committed by "oversight."

Senator Chris Dodd: The Chairman of the Senate Banking Committee postured and puffed...and he is the biggest recipient of campaign monies from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, (and the second largest recipient of AIG donations, not to mention his wife's AIG Board of Directors income.

At this moment, the Senate and the House are in the middle of a giant cover-up for Dodd, who raise a campaign buck in his own home town.

The Community Re-Investment Act - the legislation that allows those with no credit and no money to buy homes they cannot afford, has bankrupted Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and so Franks and Dodd just moved the program to the FHA. Coming up next: a bankrupt FHA.

When I think of Geithner stepping down, I have to ask who would follow him. This president and this administration have one goal. Break the country then control it for life. I applaud these men who spoke boldly: Reps. DeFazio, Brady, and Burgess.







 Kevin Brady and Tim Geithner


Related: Tracking the Mess of Fannie and Freddie

Charles Krauthammer Election Myths Ridiculous: Henry Paulson Timothy Geithner Election Crisis

Charles Krauthammer, writing for the Washington Post, takes a look at the November 2008 presidential election and says "...it was all ridiculous from the beginning. The '08 election was a historical anomaly." Then a theory about Henry Paulson and Timothy Geithner and the election crisis that gave the election to Barack Obama. See two astounding videos below.

Charles Krauthammer

The entire article Krauthammer here. Snippets:

Exactly a year later comes the empirical validation of that skepticism. Virginia -- presumed harbinger of the new realignment, having gone Democratic in '08 for the first time in 44 years -- went red again. With a vengeance....

In 2009 in Virginia, the black vote was down by 20 percent; the under-30 vote by 50 percent. And as for independents, the ultimate prize of any realignment, they bolted. In both Virginia and New Jersey they'd gone narrowly for Obama in '08. This year they went Republican by a staggering 33 points in Virginia and by an equally shocking 30 points in New Jersey.

About administration excuses:

White House apologists will say the Virginia Democrat was weak. If the difference between Bob McDonnell and Creigh Deeds was so great, how come when the same two men ran against each other statewide for attorney general four years ago the race was a virtual dead heat?

November '08 was one shot, one time, never to be replicated. Nor was November '09 a realignment. It was a return to the norm -- and definitive confirmation that 2008 was one of the great flukes in American political history.

 My 5 cents (2 cents adjusted for inflation since 1980): Secretary of Treasury Henry Paulson and Timothy Geithner, then head of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, figured that a financial meltdown of never-before-seen-proportions, would be a winning strategy for Barack Obama. Flash forward to September 14, 2008 and we awaken to President George W. Bush standing beside Paulson. Paulson told us that our financial world has changed, this very day, and he (Paulson - a Democrat) was in charge. Bush stood by, small and lonely, and let it happen. Paulson and the Federal Reserve had created their manufactured crisis and they handed the election to Barack Obama.

From James E. Campbell, Professor and Chair, University at Buffalo, SUNY: (important disclaimer, Professor Campbell does not mention a Paulson-Geithner-Federal Reserve conspiracy):

The Republicans did carry substantial political baggage into the 2008 election; but despite these considerable disadvantages, the open seat election was shaping up as a very close contest in the weeks before the national conventions and McCain took the lead after the conventions, only to plummet in the polls with the Wall Street meltdown in mid-September. The Wall Street meltdown was an unanticipated financial crisis that shook the electorate. It was the game changer. It derailed the course of the election and was critical in tipping the election to Obama...

...around the time of the conventions, public opinion begins to gel. More voters have made up their minds or given their choice some serious thought by the conventions. While it is true that Obama led in the polls before the conventions, the race was tight. In the two weeks leading up to the conventions, the average Obama two-party support was at 51.7 percent in the Real Clear Politics polls and at 51.0 percent in Gallup's registered voter tracking polls. In the week immediately before the Democrats convened in Denver, Obama's mean support was only 51.1 percent in Real Clear Politics and 50.6 percent in Gallup. An election that could turn on a swing of one or two points, or even less, is on track to be a close election. 

McCain's lead in the polls after the conventions was more than a "brief honeymoon." Polls after the conventions are important because a significant number of voters make up their minds around convention time. In the fifteen elections from 1948 to 2004, only one candidate with an early September poll percentage over 51 percent lost his election

...on its face, one would expect the Wall Street meltdown to make a significant political difference. The events were unanticipated just weeks before at the conventions and were catastrophic in magnitude. It is hard to imagine how they could not be "game changers." The first sign that the subprime mortgage mess amounted to something considerably more than a few isolated bankruptcies was on September 7 when the government seized control of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Eight days later, Lehman Brothers declared bankruptcy and a distressed Merrill Lynch was bought by the Bank of America. The next day, September 16, the government made an $85 billion bailout loan to insurance giant AIG. On September 19, President Bush called the crisis "a pivotal moment for America's economy" and asked Congress to "act now to protect our nation's economic health from serious risk."  ...

While everyone understood that the economy was weak, not even financial experts anticipated the crisis and its ramifications for the economy. In mid-August, half way through the third quarter of the year, the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia released a survey of 47 prominent economic forecasters. These forecasters predicted a real GDP third quarter growth rate of 1.2 percent. This would indicate a sluggish economy, but not one in recession....

The meltdown was a crisis in its own right that exacted a severe cost to the economy, much as it had taken its toll on the stock market (and would take on the political fortunes of the in-party)....


...did Americans understand this? Did Americans regard the meltdown as a crisis, as the derailed election thesis claims?...The polling evidence is that the public was staggered by the crisis.


Allowing for some normal dissipation of the convention bump, McCain's poll standing early in the meltdown crisis (September 14) was about 51 percent in both Gallup and in the Real Clear Politics poll average. Less than three weeks later (October 2), after the crisis was in full meltdown, McCain's poll standing had dropped to 46 percent in Gallup and 47 percent in the Real Clear Politics poll average, about where the final vote percentage wound up.  

...could there be an explanation for McCain's late September poll plunge other than the Wall Street meltdown? Could the McCain fall and Obama rise in the polls be the result of some other factor? Two possibilities have been suggested-the debates and Sarah Palin's post-convention difficulties. The debates are not plausible as an alternative explanation because of timing. McCain's drop in the polls began well before the first debate on September 26....


Was the McCain plummet in the polls a negative reaction to his selection of Sarah Palin as a vice presidential candidate or a negative reaction to the Wall Street meltdown? The evidence again supports the impact of the meltdown.... 

 In the first video below, you'll see and hear Henry Paulson and Tim Geithner's credibility questioned by Rep. Cliff Stearns (R-FL), as well as the credibility as the Federal Reserve.

In the second video below you'll hear and see a discussion about the Federal Reserve Bank and all of the other "big" banks in America (erase the image of Eliot Spitzer and high-paid call girls from your visual - but pay attention to what Spitzer says, including "a ponzi scheme and an inside job...").

Well, it is all history now but we know this (1) those who do not know history are doomed to repeat it, and (2) those who do not remember history are doomed to repeat it. I will continue to look forward to Charles Krauthammer's election myths anytime he is not talking about the elegance of an Obama speech delivery. Thanks to the Daily Bail for the first video and the second video.

Henry Paulson and Rep. Cliff Stearns - Paulson Squirms (video)

Federal Reserve, Henry Paulson, timothy Geithner (video)

July Deficit Grew by $181 Billion: FHA, Fannie, Freddie Continue Irresponsible Track

The July federal budget deficit grew by $181 billion. Just in July. The cause: increased spending to save car companies, banks and mortgage firms, plus lowered tax revenue, this according to the CBO.

Spending through July of 2009 has increased by $530 billion, which is 21 percent over the same period in 2008. The bailout money for Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae accounted for almost half of the spending increase. Unemployment benefits have more than doubled, Medicaid spending has grown by a quarter and Medicare spending has increased by 11 percent.

The deficit at the end of July 2009 reached $1.3 trillion. By the end of the fiscal year, September 30, 2009, the deficit is expected to reach $1.8 trillion. On September 30, 2008 the deficit was a whopping $455 billion - an atrocious record high at that time.

Bush Deficit on Left - Obama Projected Deficit on Right

Along with the graphic above, The Heritage Foundation says that Obama's claim that his budget will cut the deficit by half by the end of his term isn't much to brag about because he he has already "helped quadruple the deficit with his stimulus package." Halving after quadrupling cannot claim to be sound economics. Note that the decreasing projected deficit begins to increase in 2013. We continue today, in August 2009, to promote irresponsible home loans backed by the U.S. government, as we did all through the time that Barack Obama sat in the U.S. Senate and supported his comrades, Barney Frank, Chris Dodd and Maxine Waters in the sham of providing sub-prime home loans for those who could not qualify. Blame who you want for the economic downturn, the truth is it was the legislation known as the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) that allowed Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to flood the country far and wide with loans for inflated real estate to people should have been renting. It continues now - the "government," the FHA, is still providing home loans to buyers with bad credit, no credit...

Herein lies the problem. The FHA’s standard insurance program today is notoriously lax. It backs low downpayment loans, to buyers who often have below-average to poor credit ratings, and with almost no oversight to protect against fraud. Sound familiar? This is called subprime lending—the same financial roulette that busted Fannie, Freddie and large mortgage houses like Countrywide Financial.

More from the Wall Street Journal:

Fannie Mae said it will need an additional $10.7 billion from the U.S. Treasury after it posted a $14.8 billion net loss in the second quarter, as rising unemployment led more prime borrowers to default on their loans.

Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner asked Congress on Friday August 7th to lift the ceiling on U.S. debt to...whatever...no ceiling at all - saying that the ceiling of $12.1 trillion mandated by statute can be reached my mid-October 2009.

The latest request comes as the Treasury is ramping up borrowing to unprecedented levels to fund stimulus and financial bailout programs and cope with a deep recession that has devastated tax revenues.

It is expected to issue net new debt of as much as $2 trillion in the 2009 fiscal year ended September 30 and up to $1.6 trillion in the 2010 fiscal year, according to bond dealer forecasts.

See the U.S. National Debt in real time here, including government bailouts.

Take a look at how the big-spending President George W. Bush is dwarfed by the high-flying President Barack Obama.

Deficit graphic courtesy Washington Post and The Heritage Foundation

Shariah Compliant Financing: Geithner, Feds Must Defend Lawsuit

U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and the Federal Reserve attempted to have a lawsuit dismissed against them, which charges that U.S. ownership of American International Group (AIG) is unconstitutional because AIG is the "market leader in Shariah compliant financing." The lawsuit cites links between "charities that receive funds as a result of Shariah-compliant financing and "terrorist organizations that are hostile to the United States."

Timothy Geithner

The controversy involves Shariah-compliant financing, part of which requires charitable contributions to those who "struggle for Allah" ("jihad").

The lawsuit is filed as Kevin J. Murray v. Timothy F. Geithner and Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System. The Thomas More Law Center is representing Mr. Murray. U.S. District Judge Lawrence P. Zatkoff pointed to a "government co-sponsored forum entitled Islamic Finance 101." Murray argues that it is unconstitutional for the government to own 77.9% of a company that "extensively practices Shariah-compliant finance." Geithner and the Feds asked the judge to dismiss the case immediately. In what a Washington Times editorial describes as a "devastating 16-page decision," Judge Zatkoff denied Geithner's motion, which said the U.S. was in "Times of Crisis" when the ownership of AIG occurred. Zatkoff said that even though we may have been in "Times of crisis," such times "do not justify departure from the Constitution." Hurrah for a judge who respects the constitution and rules for the Constitution and intends for a citizen to have a full hearing on the issue. What a refreshing change in a week that has seen Attorney General Eric Holder completely and blatantly dismiss a voter intimidation case against the New Black Panthers, with plenty of evidence, including video and witness testimony. Photo Credit: Manuel Balce Ceneta

Geithner's Enablers in the U.S. Senate

As if it were not insulting enough to the ordinary American that U.S. Secretary of the Treasury, Tim Geithner, did not pay his social security taxes for three or four years until forced to do so, we are also told that no one but Tim Geithner can get our economy turned-around, nevermind that he's a tax evader.

NOTE: Thanks to Senators Jim DeMint (R-SC) and Jeff Sessions (R-AL) for standing strong on the principles of tax evasion. If you would like to personally thank the Senators, here is contact information: Senator DeMint and for Senator Sessions (Phone or fax only) This from the Wall Street Journal:

Mr. Geithner didn't make any Social Security or Medicare tax payments on his income during the years he worked for the IMF, though he did pay income taxes. After the Internal Revenue Service audited him in 2006 and discovered the payroll-tax errors, Mr. Geithner corrected them for 2003 and 2004. Only after Mr. Obama picked him for Treasury secretary last fall did Mr. Geithner pay the Social Security and Medicare tax he owed for 2001 and 2002.

So, in an audit of years 2003 and 2004, he was caught, and then paid his debt. But he was not "caught" for years 2001 and 2002, when he also cheated. A Team Obama spokesperson thinks Geithner received some bad advice from this tax accountant:

It's possible some of Mr. Geithner's problems stemmed from bad advice. In 2004, an accountant advised Mr. Geithner in writing that he did not owe employment taxes. An accountant who reviewed Mr. Geithner's 2001 tax return also didn't inform Mr. Geithner he owed taxes, according to an Obama aide familiar with the situation.

This is pathetic. Is this the kind of spin we are going to get out of the administration for the next four years? The soon-to-be Treasury Secretary should know tax law, ridiculous though it may be. Once audited for two years, and forced to pay up, he had to know, and his tax accountant had to know, that he failed to comply with the law for the two previous years. But wait, the WSJ says Geither DID NOT have a tax attorney for the first two years he was with the International Monetary Fund:

Mr. Geithner prepared his own federal-tax returns during the first two years he worked at the IMF, 2001 and 2002, according to the Senate Finance Committee report.

Then there's the fact that he was remibursed for what he should have paid, but didn't pay:

As an international body, the IMF doesn't withhold taxes for U.S. citizens, and employees are responsible for paying their taxes. The IMF pays employees additional tax allowances to cover federal and state income taxes, and the employer's portion of payroll taxes. The IMF informs U.S. employees about their tax allowance and what it covers and doesn't cover -- and that includes paying your payroll taxes," said Michael Mussa, a former IMF chief economist, who is now at the Peterson Institute for International Economics. "The IMF doesn't leave this out."

The increasingly annoying Senator Lindsay Graham (R-SC) considers Geithner's failure to pay taxes a "small" event in "political terms...." Seems about everyone thinks he'll find his confirmation a bit tough, but not tough enough to derail his confirmation. The New York Times quotes "several" unnamed "tax experts" saying that "it is an easy mistake of an international organization to make." There's no mention of the fact that he knew after an audit that he still owned for two previous years. It's obvious that Geithner did not plan to pay until and unless he was forced to do so. The Washington Post headlines with The Nomination That's Too Big to Fail, saying, "in the scandal-obsessed capital, the latest public peccadillo has been met by uncharacteristic indifference," and then quotes unnamed Republican senators:

The man is qualified, competent, one of the best choices the president has made," one member of the tax-writing Finance Committee said yesterday.
"I think he's a good man," another one said with a shrug.
"I don't believe there's any doubt about his qualifications," said a third.

"Nobody," WAPO says, "called a news conference to rail about the nominee." The tactic posed to comfort Americans in these troubling days, suggests that Geithner is the ONLY person to serve ably as Treasury Secretary in these "dire times." How can that be? No one else can do the job? Are we bethroning Geithner? We've already elected one king. That throne is getting a mighty overload. WAPO's reporter on this article, Dana Milbank, says "But mostly, senators have decided that times are too dire to be puritanical." I don't know about the "times," but it is a bit late for our Congress to think about acting puritanically." That train left that station in the 1980's. Senator Pat Roberts (R-KS) had advice for future appointees:

Don't wait until after you're nominated to pay.

I don't know about you, but Roberts' comment is infuriating. It demonstrates so much that is so wrong with our Representatives and Senators. Milbank goes on:

The economy is in too much trouble to wait for another Treasury secretary to be nominated -- and Republicans know they aren't likely to get another appointment as good as Geithner, who worked closely with the Bush administration while running the New York Fed. Put another way, the guy is too big to fail.

More on some wanna-be puritanical Republicans:

"Talented people like Tim Geithner are needed right now," he told Fox News [Sen. Judd Gregg (R-NH)]. And it doesn't explain Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), who told the Post's Shailagh Murray: "I'm not one who holds mistakes against people." Sen. Chuck Grassley (Iowa), the top Republican on the Finance Committee, said he hasn't "any doubt" about Geithner's qualifications and praised him as "a relative political independent."

Senator Grassley is praising Geithner as a "relative political independent," and Milbank asks "Could it be that Barack Obama has already brought a new, post-partisan era to Washington? An answer to that question might be found at Right Pundits' discussion of the Washington Post's ties to Timothy Geithner. It's an eye-opening look at how financial [Federal Reserve Bank] and media powerhouses work together...and not for the good of you and me.