CNN's Brown, Yellin ignore Republican senators' support for Geithner
SUMMARY: On CNN's Campbell Brown, discussing whether Republicans are "still raising concerns" about Tim Geithner, President-elect Barack Obama's nominee for Treasury secretary, neither Brown nor Jessica Yellin noted that several Republican senators, including Sen. Orrin Hatch and Judd Gregg, support Geithner. Additionally, Sen. Lindsey Graham has also reportedly expressed support for Geithner.
During the January 14 edition of CNN's Campbell Brown: No Bias, No Bull, host Campbell Brown asked national political correspondent Jessica Yellin whether Republicans are "still raising concerns" about Tim Geithner, President-elect Barack Obama's nominee for Treasury secretary. Yellin responded, "Yes, they are. For example, today, I spoke to Senator [Jim] DeMint [R-SC], who says he had been leaning in favor of supporting Geithner and says he's now leaning against." Yellin added: "And, look, the Republicans blocked his confirmation hearing from going forward this Friday. They say -- some of them -- they just want to take a closer look." However, neither Yellin nor Brown noted that several Republican senators, including Sen. Orrin Hatch (UT) and Judd Gregg (NH), support Geithner.
As Media Matters for America documented, on the January 13 edition of Fox News' Your World, Gregg said of Geithner: "He's the type of person you want as your Treasury secretary. And I just think this is a lot to do about nothing." Gregg later stated: "But, you know, we gotta stop looking at the ridiculous and look at the serious. We are facing one of the most significant financial crises in the history of this country. Talented people like Tim Geithner are needed right now." In addition, on January 13, FoxNews.com reported that Hatch said, "I still support him. I have no problem. ... He's a very, very competent guy." Further, in an entry posted to his blog on January 14, hours before Yellin's report, Politico senior political writer Ben Smith reported that Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) said of Geithner, "Now's not the time to think in small political terms. ... I think he's the right guy."
From the January 14 edition of CNN's Campbell Brown: No Bias, No Bull:
OBAMA [video clip]: My expectation is that Tim Geithner will be confirmed. And my expectation is, is that he is going to do an outstanding job on part of -- on the part of the -- on behalf of the American people.
BROWN: Now, this isn't the only problem the president-elect faces on Capitol Hill. The pushback from Congress on his economic rescue plan is getting stronger by the day.
National political correspondent Jessica Yellin has been following that story for us all day today. And Jessica, Obama and Geithner have both been fighting hard to save this nomination, but are Republicans, I guess, still raising concerns?
YELLIN: Yes, they are. For example, today, I spoke to Senator DeMint, who says he had been leaning in favor of supporting Geithner and says he's now leaning against. And, look, the Republicans blocked his confirmation hearing from going forward this Friday. They say -- some of them -- they just want to take a closer look.
So, behind this, Campbell, it's not just the tax issue. It's that some conservatives have been unhappy with the Geithner pick all along, because he was one of the top regulators of the financial industry during the meltdown, and they worried he missed the signs of the -- they think he's too close to Wall Street. But a lot of this is just political -- to drag out the distraction for Obama and tarnish the golden image his economic team came in with.
Still, the bottom line here is, provided there are no other tax revelations, he is likely to get confirmed, it's just the opposition might be painful along the way.
BROWN: Yeah, still a major distraction. You know, Obama also wanted to have the stimulus bill passed, his treasury secretary confirmed by the time he took office. It looks like, you know, timing-wise, neither of these things are going to happen.
YELLIN: Right, well, it has become a rocky road to the White House. Look, Republicans are souring on releasing the remaining money from that financial bailout; liberals are resisting parts of the stimulus package; Democrats are showing they won't roll over for Obama. Now, part of the problem here is he didn't include them in writing the stimulus.
One senator said to me, look, if you want us in on the landing, you better get us in on the takeoff. So, there are going to be growing pains in this relationship with Congress, but none of it's dire. It'll get done. Obama is frankly too popular with the American public for Congress to buck him, at least at first, but it will be a steep learning curve ahead.
BROWN: Jessica Yellin for us tonight -- Jessica, thanks a lot. Appreciate it.
On a related note, Geithner is being criticized by progressive writer Marie Cocco for attempting to use his children's sleep-away camp as a child-care expense.
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/postpartisan/2009/01/geithner_claimed_camp_as_a_chi.html?hpid=opinionsbox1
...several Republican senators, including Sen. Orrin Hatch and Judd Gregg, support Geithner.
Probably all of whom have had some potential IRS and/or nanny issues at one time or another...and about which we are unaware.
Those, plus:
...are reason enough to question the merits of the nomination.
Orrin Hatch probably supports this guy because he's corrupt too.
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There are worse things about Geithner than not paying taxes. This guy is really bad news.
He has worked for the slimiest organizations like the International Monetary Fund, The Council on Foreign Relations, the Federal Reserve Bank and he helped orchestrated the bailouts. If this guy is so smart, why did he help hand a bunch of money to banks, which they pocketed? Judging from this guys career, I believe he knew what he was doing. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timothy_F._Geithner#Career
Look under the Career section. You take any poor country and then Google that country's name along with IMF and World Bank, like Mexico for example. You will find how that counties economy was destroyed by the WB and IMF.
Here are some documentaries about how the WB and IMF destroy the economies of counties, and judging from Geither's Wikipedia profile, he had a hand in it.
http://alternativeconservative.com/2008/12/12/fight-global-poverty
http://mrxfromplanetx.com/the-new-rulers-of-the-world (how the IMF and WB destroyed Indonesia).
http://mrxfromplanetx.com/2008/11/10/john-perkins-confessions-of-an-economic-hit-man
According to John Perkins the IMF and World bank does this on purpose to force poor countries to sell of their natural resources. The US and Brittan hold the dept over poor countries heads to get them to vote how they would like in the UN. That's how the UN is rigged.
I hope the point of MMFA about this is that Geithner is no agent of change. He is center right.
The point is that CNN is not giving us the whole story.
Okay and how is that conservative misinformation unless goalposts have been moved right? I also mean MMFA should not be in knee jerk defense of Obama's people when the media might exagerate opposition.
If you get the whole story, you're informed. If you don't get the whole story, you can be misled, and thus, misinformed. Brown and Yellin only gave us part of the story when it comes to Republican senatorial opinion of Geithner, which is misleading, since the nomination does have notable support from Republican senators.
you bet they do. This guy is in charge of the IRS and doesn't even pay his own taxes? I don't care how qualified this guy is, this is not right. And the liberal media is just covering it up and making it look like the republicans are obstructing this guy.
The liberal media (a real one,not a wingnut deffinition) has brought up Charles Rangel as having failed to pay some of his taxes.
Sorry, what were you saying?
I believe it was an attempt at liberally warming up the global media hoax, or something like that. Real groundbreaking stuff...
We need more groundbreaking, and that's a factiod.
Uh, yeah.
CNN, for example, is being especially secretive about the whole thing. Yep, no details to be found here, it's nothing but accusations of "Republican obstruction."
Give me a break.
I think the old Stormin' Mormon Orrin Hatch may have neglected to pay some of his fair share of taxes to old Uncle Same. Maybe Judd Gregg didn't pay his fair share of taxes for his $800,000 Powerball prize he won in New Hampshire. Or maybe not for special acne treatments. (After all, his acne was so bad as a young man that he used it to avoid serving in Vietnam.) And good old Lindsey, maybe he grew some tobacco down in there in South Carolina and didn't give Uncle Sam his fair share of the profits from it.
THANK YOU.
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