Treasury Secretary Tim Gheitner appeared before Congress yesterday without a plan for dealing with the economic crisis.  In explaining his failure, he whined that “I`ve only been on the job for two weeks.”

However, isn`t this the same Tim Gheitner who has been chairman of the New York Fed since 2003?  In that position, did he not participate in the discussions of the TARP programme?  In addition, it is clear that he was very much involved in the government’s decision to bailout Bear Sterns and AIG, while allowing Lehman Brothers to go into bankruptcy.

In effect, Tim Gheitner has been at the highest levels of fiscal and financial policy-making for years.  He was integrally involved in the Bush economic rescue plan.  Now he comes to Capitol Hill and pretends he just arrived in town.

This is truly amateur hour.

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