Chris Wallace tossed out an interesting factoid on Fox News Sunday this morning… Out of 800 cabinet positions that require Senate confirmation Barack Obama has only nominated 44 and of those only 28 have been confirmed.
I’m hoping I heard that wrong it strikes me as being an absurdly low number seven weeks into an administration… But it would help explain this AFP story on Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner:
US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner is practically alone on the job, working night and day to cope with the worst economic downturn in decades.Of the 15 key Treasury Department positions that require Senate confirmation, only one has been filled. Stuart Levey, a leftover from the previous administration, who as under secretary of the treasury for terrorism and financial intelligence, is not central to the crisis management however.
Unemployment figures which revealed Friday that 651,000 jobs were lost in February, showed the recession is running ever deeper, but Geithner, who started work in late January, has no deputy secretary, no under secretaries for international affairs and no deputy under secretaries.
Annette Nazareth, who had been expected to be chosen as deputy secretary — Geithner’s top aide — has withdrawn her name, the Wall Street Journal reported in its online edition, citing people familiar with the matter.
I don’t even know what say at this point… There seems to be something fundamentally broken with administration… Call it lack of experience or lack of urgency or whatever but there seems to be an almost cavalier attitude towards actually leading and governing this nation.