Obama, Bernanke and Geithner on the Hot Seat

It’s not easy being in power when the electorate is riled up. President Obama certainly found that out last week in Massachusetts, where the election of Republican Scott Brown to the vacant seat of the late Ted Kennedy shattered his party’s filibuster-proof supermajority in the U.S. Senate.

This week, another political luminary found out that not everyone approves of the job he’s doing. I am speaking here about Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke.  Although it looks increasingly as though Mr. Bernanke will be confirmed for a second term as head of the central bank, many in the Senate — Democrats and Republicans –have expressed their lack of confidence in the way the Fed chairman managed the financial crisis.

And finally, we have Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, who came under fire today from Democrats and Republicans in Congress for his role in the $180-billion-plus taxpayer bailout of insurance giant American International Group (AIG). Geithner claims he played no role in withholding information about AIG deals with business partners, but in a hearing held today on Capitol Hill, one member after another expressed anger over the sordid situation.

Rep. Stephen Lynch, D-Mass., told Geithner: “It just stinks to the high heaven what happened here. The disclosure was not there at the proper time to tell the American people and tell this Congress what was going on.”

In tonight’s State of the Union address, we’re likely to find out just how aggressive President Obama is in combating the tough week he and his administration have had.  Already, we know that the president is going to come out swinging on big banks and Wall Street firms, with new proposed legislation to limit the size and scope of financial institutions.

Hey, when you’re down and out, why not beat up on America’s favorite whipping boy — business? Unfortunately for the president, I think he’s barking up the wrong tree. In fact, I think he’d be better served by redirecting that anger inward.