Remember when Timothy Geitner was the ONLY ONE who could get us out of the financial crisis?

Remember when Timothy Geitner was the ONLY ONE who could get us out of the financial crisis?

If your memory doesn't go back that far, a Google search came up with an interesting summary of Liberal opinion by the invaluable Rush Limbaugh:

RUSH: Here's Andrea Mitchell with Mika Brzezinski today on Scarborough's show on MSNBC. Mika Brzezinski says, "Tim Geithner, is this a big problem, some tax issue for the guy?"


ANDREA MITCHELL: He is hugely smart, they need him right away on the job, I think both senators in the -- Democrats and Republicans from the finance committee say that they need him right away to get confirmed. He did his own taxes, by the way, which is -- and then he got an accountant who didn't tell him all the back taxes that he needed to pay.


HARRY REID: Timothy Geithner is a person that is extremely well-qualified to be one of the finest secretaries of Treasury this country's ever had. And there is a few little hiccups, but that's basically what they are. I am not concerned at all.
...


In the immediate aftermath of Obama’s election, network journalists covering Obama’s possible picks for key economic positions touted Geithner as “highly regarded,” “brainy,” “well-thought-of,” “much-admired” and deserving “tremendous respect.” Of 56 stories mentioning Geithner between Nov. 3 and the official announcement of his selection Nov. 24, 34 portrayed him in a positive light while 22 were neutral or balanced. There were no negative stories about his appointment.

The reaction to his failure to pay income tax?

Rush Limbaugh plays a series of sound bites from politicians and the press on Geithner’s cheating on his income taxes

KERRY: It is possible to make an innocent mistake. I think this is an honest mistake.


CROWLEY: The transition team put out a lengthy list of reasons why this was just an honest mistake.


BORGER: ... I would not describe as a huge mistake.


HENRY: It is a common mistake.


KING: Maybe an honest mistake.


ALTER: It does seem to be a honest mistake.


SHUSTER: He made a common mistake on his taxes.


BARNES: Yes, it is a common mistake.


STODDARD: The Obama administration is saying it's a common mistake.


HARWOOD: It is being described as an honest mistake.


VIEIRA: ...Geithner's tax problems, honest mistake...


BROKAW: This does look like an honest mistake.


MITCHELL: An honest mistake...


STEPHANOPOULOS: This was an honest mistake, fairly common. Geithner himself is embarrassed by this and he's sorry.


ALTER: It does seem to be an honest mistake. It would really be a shame if something like this sunk the nomination. We are in very serious times! They're quite different than 1993 when Zoe Baird's nomination was sunk for attorney general over this kind of nanny problem. Geithner is, by all accounts, the only person in Washington who fully understands TARP! ...You know, $700 billion. We cannot afford at this point, unless there's gross malfeasance, to take him out of the picture.


RUSH: This is the Drive-By sentiment summed up by Jonathan Alter. Geithner is a genius; he's gonna save the economy of the entire world. So what if he doesn't pay his taxes? These are serious times. We need the man! He is the only guy who understands TARP!

Andrea Mitchell became a Geithner groupie:

In post-election coverage on NBC, political correspondent Andrea Mitchell mentioned Geithner as a possible choice for Obama’s Treasury. She said he was “very much admired” and commanded “tremendous respect” from Wall Street. She also praised Geithner as “not partisan. He’s an independent, registered independent.” She never mentioned he had served in the Clinton administration.


Mitchell praised Geithner again on the “Today” show Nov. 6, calling him “highly regarded.”

But she was far from alone:

ABC’s Claire Shipman called Geithner “brainy” on “Good Morning America” Nov. 5, and declared he had “been helping to manage the crisis.” That night, CBS’s Jim Axelrod told “Evening News” viewers Geithner was “well thought of on Wall Street.”


When it became clear Geithner would be Obama’s pick to head the Treasury Department, journalists ignored much of the criticism of his time at the Fed, instead focusing heavily on Geithner’s positives, including the stock market’s positive reaction to his selection. On Nov. 20, New York Times editor Marcus Mabry told CBS’s “The Early Show” Geithner fit perfectly into Obama’s image of change.


“If one wants to bring new people, if one wants to bring new bodies, new blood, a kind of best and brightest, Tim Geithner, head of the New York Fed, really at the center of this Wall Street meltdown we’ve seen, someone with lots of experience in this particular morass, someone might be able to bring more confidence, restore confidence in the markets,” Mabry said.


In a segment package aired on the Nov. 21 “Nightly News” and the Nov. 22 “Today” show, Mitchell declared Geithner a “first among equals.” “The Obama team sees Geithner as representing what it calls change, someone who doesn’t come from a Wall Street investment bank.”


While Geithner’s fresh image impressed journalists like Mabry, other reporters praised him for exactly the opposite characteristics. “In Geithner’s favor,” CBS’s Michelle Miller said on “The Saturday Early Show” Nov. 22, “he’s not new to Washington. Before moving to New York in 2003, the 47-year-old financial chief spent 15 years inside the Beltway, worked at Treasury under three administrations, including Bill Clinton’s, and has allies on both sides of the aisle.”


Mitchell, Mabry and others failed to point out Geithner’s long history working in government – more than a decade in the Treasury Department and time at the International Monetary Fund – and his involvement in the much-criticized decision to let Lehman Bros. bank fail – two aspects of his career that might raise questions about whether the promised “change” is really coming

You want to know how much in love the Liberals were with Timothy Geithner?  He was named one of People Magazine 100 most beautiful people.  I'm serious as a heart attack.

That was then, this is now.   Geithner keeps pushing the lie that the economy is on the right track and recovery is already here.  But no one - well almost no one - believes him.

The Liberal Huffington Post: Who Are You Going to Believe -- Tim Geithner or Your Own Lying Eyes?

The Washington Note is already searching for his successor: Who Will Succeed Tim Geithner as Next Treasury Secretary?

CNN Money: Time for Tim Geithner to go

And Reason makes fun of his syncopants: Timothy Geithner: He's Way Smarter Than You, and He Could Kick Your Ass  He quotes Joshua Green at the Atlantic in an extraordinary bit of ass kissing:
 

In the course of many interviews about Geithner, two qualities came up again and again. The first was his extraordinary quickness of mind and talent for elucidating whatever issue was the preoccupying concern of the moment. Second was his athleticism. Unprompted by me, friends and colleagues extolled his skill and grace at windsurfing, tennis, basketball, running, snowboarding, and softball (specifying his prowess at shortstop and in center field, as well as at the plate). He inspires an adolescent awe in male colleagues.