H. Rodge Cohen - Another Obama nominee withdraws.

H. Rodge Cohen was nominated to be a deputy Secretary of the Treasury. George Stephanopoulos reports that he withdrew his name from consideration because “an issue arose in the final stages of the vetting process.”

No one wants to report what that "issue" was. Cohen appears to have had tremendous experience and would have been an asset in the Treasury Department. He apparently made many enemies during his representation of various clients over the years.

One blogger speculates that "Given current Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner’s continued underwhelming performance, the prospect that Cohen, given his history, might actually take charge of Treasury if Geithner proves he’s not up to the task may have been too much for his financial industry adversaries to bear."

This speculation provides an indication of Cohen's experience and the level of the enemies that he may have made over the years.

All of this may well be true. His enemies may have told the Obama administration to withdraw his name from consideration. It is also possible that he decided that he didn't want to join a ship that appears to be sinking rapidly. Geithner seems to be having extreme difficulty in persuading qualified people to join him at Treasury.

Either there are elements in the Democratic Party or the Obama administration who oppose anyone with adequate credentials for Treasury posts or those with adequate credentials don't want to be associated with the Obama administration. Most speculation seems to focus on the former. I suspect the latter may be as important.

Team Obama gets a big fat F from the economists.

The Wall Street Journal reports that a poll of 49 economists gave President Obama an average grade of 59 for his leadership in trying to turn the economy around. They gave Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner an average grade of 51 and Federal Reserve Chairperson Ben Bernanke a grade of 71.

Geithner: Obama to fight international tax dodgers

Geithner says that the Obama administration will introduce rules that will prevent international companies from avoiding American taxes. Perhaps they might want to take action against their own members to make sure that they not avoid paying American taxes.

Rather than being a serious proposal intended for governance, this seems nothing but an emotional ploy in a political campaign. Does Geithner seriously suggest that the administration will take this action? This country is already one of the few nations in the world that taxes its corporations for their earnings abroad.

Rather than attempting to increase taxes on corporations, the administration should be reducing tax payments to allow for job creation. Unfortunately, that basic economic concept seems far too complex for the Obama ideologues.

I would hope that Geithner is embarrassed for making such comments.