Giving in to Geithner: The B.O. Republicans bow down Updated: Final vote – 60-34; Dems against: Harkin, Byrd, Feingold, plus Sanders
Scroll down for updates…4:21pm Eastern Senate floor liveblogging…Hatch sings Geithner’s praises…Final vote 60-34
Woo-hoo! You’re in. Let’s go shoot some hoops.
The Barack Obama Republicans are Bending Over again.
For weeks, we’ve watched capitulationsist GOP Senators rationalize away Treasury Secretary nominee Tim Geithner’s tax, legal, and bailout failout troubles. Sen. Orrin Hatch insists he’s “very competent.” Sen. Lindsay Graham lectured us not to be “small” about it. Five B.O. Republicans on the Senate Finance Committee supported Geithner, five opposed him.
The final vote is set tonight. And the outcome is preordained (or, as Spike Lee puts it, pre-deortained): Geithner will sail through with token opposition.
The only open question is whether Sen. Hatch will chime in with a paean to Geithner’s manhood before casting his yes vote.
Behold the Party of Supplication. Bad on me for underestimating their fecklessness.
***
Update 4:21pm Eastern. Oh, crikey. Sen. Hatch just finished his floor statement. He did everything but praise Geithner’s manhood. Lauded his “impressive education and intelligence.” Lambasted conservative critics for obstructing the nomination and scolded them for not appreciating that Obama put in a “non-ideological” nominee. Banged the Chicken Little drum. And argued that Geithner’s mistakes made him even more uniquely qualified to handle the job.
What did I tell ya? Screw up, move up. It’s the Washington way.
Update 4:30pm Eastern. Sen. Chambliss will oppose. So will Sen. Inhofe. who objects not only to tax debacle, but also Geithner’s bailout failout record. “Given [Geithner's] support for ad hoc bailouts — even stronger than Hank Paulson’s, I cannot support this nomination.”
Update 5:30pm Eastern: GOP Sen. Susan Collins says no.
Update: 60-34.
Timothy Geithner won confirmation as U.S. Treasury secretary on Monday as the U.S. Senate set aside misgivings about his past income tax problems in light of his experience battling the financial crisis.
Geithner, 47, was expected to be sworn in quickly to help lead President Barack Obama’s efforts to stabilize a worsening economy. The Senate approved his nomination on a 60-34 vote.
With the U.S. economy in full-blown crisis, Geithner’s experience in dealing with the past year’s rapid-fire rescues of key financial firms trumped the taint from his late payment of $34,000 in self-employment taxes when he worked at the International Monetary Fund earlier this decade.
The new Treasury chief is expected to soon unveil reforms to the United States’ $700 billion financial bailout program to provide more support for housing and credit markets, and possibly a new effort to absorb troubled assets from banks.
“I would rather have a battle hardened veteran at the helm who knows the shoals and whirlpools than a neophyte who has to wade into these churning waters for the first time,” Republican Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah said during debate on the nomination.
Waiting for the roll call vote. Some of the Dems who opposed Geithner:
Sen. Tom Harkin of Iowa, Sen. Robert Byrd of West Virginia and Sen. Russ Feingold of Wisconsin. Independent Sen. Bernard Sanders of Vermont, who caucuses with the Democrats, also voted against confirmation.
Update 7:10pm Eastern. I’ve posted the roll call vote in a new post with a breakdown of the 10 B.O. Republicans who supported Geithner.
See what others have said
Note from Michelle: This section is for comments from michellemalkin.com's community of registered readers. Please don't assume that I agree with or endorse any particular comment just because I let it stand. A reminder: Anyone who fails to comply with my terms of use may lose his or her posting privilege.
Trackbacks
- Fiscal Suicide: Mac is Back? « JoHNBRoDiGaNDoTCoM
- Mitch McConnell Mails It In For Senate Republicans « The Forum
- The Political Class
- The BO Republicans | The Political Class
- BizzyBlog » The Invisible Sherrod Brown’s Geithner Vote
- Jeremiah Films
- A Common Honest Mistake: –Give Me A Break « Pronk Palisades
- Most powerful Republican in New York state politics has been federally indicted with a variety of corruption charges. « Goodtimepolitics
- Geithner Vote Expected Monday | Right Resolve
- Hot Air » Blog Archive » Susan Collins: I can’t vote for a tax cheat for Treasury secretary
- Susan Collins can’t vote for a Tax Cheat for Treasury Secretary « POLITISITE: Politics from the RIGHT Side of the WEB
- Susan Collins can’t vote for a Tax Cheat for Treasury Secretary « Iron Mill News Service
- Screw up, move up. It’s the Washington way | Right Voices
- RiNO’s are NOT the Enemy « JoHNBRoDiGaNDoTCoM
- We Now Have A Tax Cheat In Charge Of America’s Treasury | Democrat=Socialist
- “No one respects a whore.” « Mark Epstein
- Geithner’s Rap Sheet « FactReal
- List of Republicans Who Voted for the Tax Evader | The American Pundit
- Tax cheat Timothy Geithner now in control of your taxes! | Fire Andrea Mitchell!
- Change: Tax Evader Becomes Chief Tax Collector « The Chronicles Of Two Rogue Jews
- Change: Tax Evader Becomes Chief Tax Collector | BigBook.eu
- Tax Evader, Tim “Turbo-Tax” Geithner Sworn In As Treasury Secretary…
- This ain’t Hell, but you can see it from here » Blog Archive » Dems’ double standard
- Agreeing with Feingold twice since the inauguration « Musings of a Thoughtful Conservative
- Patterico’s Pontifications » Senate Confirms Geithner
Comments
You must be logged in to post a comment.
Categories: Tim Geithner
Power Line
» More From the East Anglia Archives
American Thinker
» Sarah Palin and the low ebb of the cultural leftDoug Ross @ Journal
» ACORN pwnage part II: Breitbart's BigGovt Lowers the BoomBig Government
» BREAKING: San Diego ACORN Document Dump ScandalVillainous Company
» Amateur Hour in the Oval Office Continues....Nice Deb
» OGreen Room
» Times Slimes Obamic Climes
So we will now have a guy in charge of the IRS who can’t do his own taxes.
yay us.
Hopey Changey is taking a back seat, crooks in politics, Same Ole Same Ole, another Odopey pass on corruption.
The one party system is here.
Never again will I waste another vote on Snowe and Collins, Maine’s “Republicans.”
I like the name one of Michelle’s other readers gave them: “vichy” Republicans. Collaborators…..
Bill Grant is gonna get you. Tsk, tsk.
_______________________________________
Seriously … I’m all for taking these crapweasels to task but they aren’t listening to us. We’ve far surpassed the idea of taxation without representation. They are our betters and we just better fall.in.line. Now where have I heard that line before? Hmmm.
I wonder if we can all use that as an argument to have penalties waived for making a mistake on our tax returns?
This is going to be a loooonnggggg 4 years.
I can’t get very worked up over this. Yes, I think Geithner should have disqualified himself and that his story about his failure to pay taxes is bullshit. But, as someone who lives in a Dem Congressional district in a state with two Dem senators and a Dem governor, I have to ration my outrage.
The Republican Party is dead.
Walterc, I don’t think he will last that long. We should have a pool for when he loses it.
Tax Crook for Treasury Secretary. Making first anyway we can.
And who said the Republicans were the party of corruption, heck, they were just pikers compared to the Democrat’s THIEVERY.
Good point AJ.
Can’t wait to see what the Vichy Republicans will do next.
I find it difficult to get worked up over this. While I believe that either Geithner or President Obama should have withdrawn his name from contention after his failure to pay taxes was revealed and that his story about forgetting is bull, I live in a state with two Dem senators, a Dem governor and a Dem congressman. I figure I’m just going to have to get used to it.
All that’s needed is for them to wave the white hankies and pass out from a spell of the vapors.
All the carping and handwringing in the world will not obscure the fact that come election time these feckless fools will be right back there, being their same, simple BO selves.
They know that they will not be voted out.
My one hope is that some real conservative here in Utah will replace that sniveling coward Hatch, then two years later get rid of Bennett. What a bunch of spineless, self-serving weasels.
I’m watching a program on History International about Neanderthals and the current line of discussion is whether or not they had a language.
One needs to look no further than government to figure that one out.
Another example of why I responded to the latest GOP money-plea e-mail with words, instead of money. I told them until they grew a pair and started standing for something besides “bi-partisanship” that is never reciprocated, they could go to hell. And obviously they (and we) are well on the way.
“Vichy Republicans”. DAMN. That is PERFECT.
Even the French had a Resistance though.
Republicans? What Republicans . . . that has been party is sickening.
But then they had deGaulle, so it’s pretty much a wash.
Vichy Republicans is accurate…so is Quislings…
GOP? No, POP (Party of Propitiation)I heard a little of Kevin Whalen on his Sunday night Pundit Review Radio program on WRKO. He’d been talking to David Frum. When a conservative caller started ripping the quislings in Washington, Whalen, who I like generally, started denigrating ‘conservatives’ who won’t go along on surrendering the culture war. Left to our own devices, supposedly, we’ll be having conventions in phone booths because we’ll lose guys like him.
No point, I guess, in pointing out that when conservatives loosen their requirements we are served up lame asses like John McCain.
Sad.
Just because Geithner “paid” the taxes he cheated on, which is like a bank robber returning the money to the safe after he hears the police are on to him, should be no excuse for the feds not to charge him with tax evasion as they would any other citizen.
The man is indispensible? Give me a break! He engineered TARP? Even the part where we throw 700 Billion into the banking system with no accountability? I’d call that a failure and a good reason not to make him Treasury Secretary.
In recent years, the Stupid Party very rarely fails to disappoint.
Yes we do, Spanish and English thank you, gracias.
“The man is indispensible?”
That’s what i was thinking , iamsaved. How did we ever survive the 80’s without him?
I have officially notified the MN Republican and National republican Parties of my dropping out of their membership… I have been loyal to them for over 35 years and cannot tolerate nor condone the spineless activity of same. I am a Conservative and will do my best to find a Party that subscribes to same without libertarian policies as no laws on drugs and do what you like attitudes. I may become a lone wolf, but better that than a sheep
Independent conservatives are the future. RIP GOP.
I’m right behind you MNUSMCDavid! Every time they ask me for money I tell them what they need to do get my money and they just ignore me and keep askin’ for my money. What a bunch of knuckleheads!
Well if anyone knows the dangers of “small”, it would be Lindsay Graham…
I’ve been a Minnesota Republican for 29 years.
The Senate Republicans should all be issued French Army Knives.
If one were to ask these RINOs confidentially why they keep giving to BHO, they might say, “If we give him enough rope, he’ll hang himself.” Trouble is, all of us are getting hung first!
There will be no penalty waivers, walterc.
I filed a return years ago (by hand) and as I have a habit of crossing my sevens, the genius at the tax board read my “7″ as a “2″ and started accruing penalties that very minute.
A very sternly-worded letter was the only way to have the
toolemployee recheck the math and see that in fact, I was owed money and not vice-versa.Come to think of it, I think that employee’s surname was Geithner…I’ll check.
Hey Republicans!
YOUR PLAYING INTO THE HANDS OF AN EXTREME SOCIALS.
STOP IT
Yet another shining example of why I am no longer a Republican. The only difference between Republicans and Democrats is the spelling.
The Senate Republicans should all be issued cyanid pills to hasten their self imposed suicide.
Actually – I’d prefer to wait. I’d most prefer they did nothing. Everytime Washington does something, it’s bad. Nothing is better than bad. Let’s have nothing.
I’ll definitely never be called a republican again without correcting the person using such an insult against me, & I’ll certainly never call myself one again.
I will be known as a Conservative from now on. The “Republican party” is just a name now, nothing more. They are a “Party” more in the drunken, lewd & out of control sense of the word.
No doubt the Transition Team is hard at work trying to find someone that:
…cheated on his FAR test and repeatedly fails check rides to head the FAA.
…was busted for insider trading to head the SEC.
…plagiarized a thesis to be Secretary of Education.
…was an ENRON executive to be Commerce Secretary.
No Longer A RINO
I guess I would have been what Michael Medved refers to as a RINO. Someone who usually votes Republican, but not when they are liberals. No problem, since the party left me, I no longer consider myself a Republican. I still believe in small gov’t, sovereignty, rule of law, and national security.
Too bad the GOP doesn’t.
Vichy Republicans.
GOP-RIP
*I like Klute Republicans; It is a two-fer; Like the detective, they have been sleeping with a whore(played by traitor Jane Fonda), and sure enough, they become whoring traitors to conservative principles.
*It is easy to see the GOP has learned nothing when they still allow Mike Duncan to run again to head the RNC, but like it or not, the GOP is the one and only vehicle to put the brakes on this socialism train and find the reverse gear; Takeover begins at the top, and ends with the removal of RINO’s; Let the RINO’s start their own party; They could call it the Bree Daniels Party.
Vichy Republicans? That works, Anybody here have a read on the Constitutional Party-besides their web site?
I had really hoped that the Party would come out swinging, rebuilding-at least on the grass roots level. But most of my Conservative friends are so disgusted they are staying home and sitting on their check books.
The Party Pros are so frightened of Obama they are wearing Depends.
I think John McCain is doing Obama’s laundry and polishing his shoes.
I know it was a waste of my time but i just called and left messages with the staff of Feinstein and the voice mail of Boxer explaining that my wife was laid off in a round of school closures five years ago, went to EDD and got two weeks of unemployment, and then three years later we received a letter from the IRS stating that we needed to pay them back that less then $300 and oh yeah three years of interest, too. All that to say that if either one of them voted in favor of Geithner they would never get a vote from me again!
not that they’ve ever gotten one before…….they haven’t!
I listen to Rush on an MP3 player and often I’m days behind; however, one day recently, I heard him say he wasn’t a Republican. It caught me off-guard; kind of surprised me, but kind of didn’t. I now identify with Rush more than ever. My GOP days have ended. I’m spent and all used up to the point at which I’m no longer an asset to them and vice versa. Each day I have less in common with them as they continue to eat their young, and the constant assault upon my senses, conscience, and character have become more than I can bear. They’ve gone to the other side expecting folks of character to follow them. They’ve asked us to deny our character, our faith, and principles to the point of no return. Speaking as a Christian, my affection for God and my will to do what is right irrespective of who’s watching is far greater than my affection for the GOP. As Obama defines success, I, like Rush, hope he fails, but now I’m taking it a step further. I wish the GOP as it currently stands to fail as well. It’s time to break the mold and start afresh.
now if the people bow down we’ve really gone over to the USSA….I personally don’t bow to any man….
OK, everyone, it’s time for a modern-day Boston tea party. How about this: when filing your 2008 income tax return, leave off a bunch of your income and write in “GEITHNER EXCLUSION”. If enough of us do this, the IRS would be swamped trying to deal with it.
No, of course, we won’t. We’re the law-abiding ones. No wonder we keep getting rolled by our spineless representatives.
Grotesquely Obsequious Prostitutes
Gross Old Perverts(Sen. Tappy-toes)
This country is beginning to look and smell like a large piece of rotten meat with an infestation of maggots.
Time for a Tax Revolt.
Who wants to go to prison with me?
Seriously. They can’t jail us all.
If the Geithner nomination is confirmed, it sets a precedent for tax-payers to ‘forget’ to pay their taxes. Seriously, I’m sure there’s some tax lawyers here who could make hay of this, or am I being hopelessly naive?
that term people are using…”a long 4 years” scares the hell out of me. With a democrapically controlled congress, what are the chances they over turn the 22nd amendment and make this empty headed suit a KING?
Day by day the left pushing for a revolt…it’s coming folks, just a matter of how much people in general will take before it blows.
Be prepared folks it’s going to get very ugly out there.
Anybody notice all of the Obama bumper stickers not visible on cars these days?
Maybe some are losing their hopiness?
Wow, first time I’ve ever heard a Senator admit how Washington really works.
I call it how I see it.
My advice to the Republican Party is STAND UP OR GIVE UP!
This is a prime example of why I no longer consider myself a Republican. These people are spineless. If you think they can be removed from power quickly enough to return the GOP to its conservative base then you are deluded.
And John McCain has not yet begun to be a maverick! Just wait a few weeks and he will be the 60th Democrat Senator in this Congress.
America needs a CONSERVATIVE party.
I see little point in complaining all that much since what the one wants he will get for the next 2 years at least.
arggghh.
Anyone here work for Treasury?
Just wondering what the morale there is like after having a tax cheat selected to lead you in carrying out your mission.
How can Geithner possibly be an effective leader for that department?
I would be mollified with “token resistence” but the active support of Obama by the GOP Senators just turns my stomach. These people have forgotten who they were and why the came to Washington, DC.
Two words: TERM LIMITS!
The “Invertebrate Republicans” indeed.
What do you mean “will be”, Eagle? That was a fait accompli some time back.
But if y’all don’t play along with Obama you’re likely to provoke Ed Morrissey into donning the blonde wig again to issue yet another sobbing Cris-Crokerish “Leave Obama alone!!” diatribe over at HotAir.
YAY! Susan Collins actually stood up and did the right thing!!! Go Susan!
They’re likely all on Huffpost and Koz having raptures about their new boss. Everybody’s looking forward to the do-it-yourself bonuses.
I have heard the “smart folks” say that the money from the Generational Theft Act of 2009 will not reach the U.S Citizens until after the recession is over. So why pass the Generational Theft Act of 2009 at all?
And how do they know the recession will end? I wonder if the “smart folks” read Matthew Parris of the London Times who wrote “This recession is not a failure of market economics. It is a reassertion of market economics after a decade in which we paid ourselves more than we were producing, and funded it precariously and temporarily by complicated credit instruments that it took a while for the market to rumble.”
Give us a list of the REPUBLICAN SCUM TRAITORS that voted for this Zeitgeitner! Give us a list of the people who will be CHALLENGING THEM IN THE REPUBLICAN PRIMARIES so that we can SEND THEM MONEY.
Please.
We need a good solid conservative to run against Lindsay Grahamnesty. Anyone know of any prospects?
I suppose I could have been more clear on my comments about McCain. I meant to say he would shortly set new standards for “selling out,” er, “bi-partisanship.”
I fear that there will be nothing left to restrain his desire to “reach out across the aisle” at this point. Now he can be the Democrat he has always wanted to be!
Can’t wait for the roll call on this one.
Bernard Sanders, the SOCIALIST, voted against Zetigeithner, but ORIN HATCH, REPUBLICAN, voted FOR?
WHO IS RUNNING AGAINST HATCH IN THE PRIMARY?
The Republicans who voted for this idiot:
Graham (R-SC)
Gregg (R-NH)
Hatch (R-UT)
Crapo (R-ID)
Cornyn (R-TX)
Corker (R-TN)
Shelby (R-AL)
Ensign (R-NV)
Snowe (R-ME)
Vainobiatch (R-OH)
Dems Voting against:
Byrd (D-WV)
Harkin (D-IA)
Feingold (D-WI)
Sanders (I/S/D-VT)
Not Voting/Not Confirmed:
Bond (R-MO)
Wyden (D-OR)
Brown (D-OH)
Kennedy (D-OH)
Minnesota Replacement (R/D-MN)
New York Replacement (D-NY)
Corker
Cornyn
Crapo
Ensign
Graham
Gregg
Hatch
Shelby
Snowe
Voinovich
10 Republicans that shouldn’t to be US Senators anymore.
There you go. It is FIXED now.
One wonders if this is some attempt at “self term limiting” on their part…
What is going on when I am on the same side as this collection of clowns!
I take it the Fwench ones have white flags on the end?
All I have to say is Fox and Henhouse!
Thank God 30 Republicans voted against this tax cheat. It’s more than I thought would have. BTW what happened to Sen Ensign…WHY?WHY?WHY?
I can say with pride that both of my Senators, one a Democrat, voted NAY. There is hope.
Vitter is batting 1000 at obstructionism 2009.
I am absolutely furious over this. How can this possibly stand? A tax cheat in charge of the IRS? This man belongs in prison, not in the cabinet.
Obama has only been president a week and we’ve already “changed” so much I feel like the America I have known all my life no longer exists.
USA RIP.
*sigh* Off to send an e-mail to one of my Senators (R) to chastise him for voting for Geithner… but at least I get to send an e-mail to my other Senator thanking him for his no vote.