USA Today-
Rep. Connie Mack, R-Fla., called today for Treasury Secretary Tim
Geithner to resign or be fired. His spokeswoman, Stephanie DuBois, says that “to the best of my knowledge” Mack is the first member of Congress to do so.
“This week’s news on the AIG bonus scandal is but the latest fiasco under his watch and he has lost the confidence of the American people,” Mack said in a statement this morning. “Quite simply, the Timothy Geithner experience has been a disaster … Timothy Geithner should either resign or be fired for the good of the country.”
Yesterday Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., said Geithner seems to be “out of the loop” but said he did not know if Geithner should resign.
In other political news today, Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., tells The Hill he won’t become a Democrat but would consider running as an independent as a last resort. Specter, a moderate who supported President Obama’s stimulus plan, faces primary challenges next year from conservatives.
And Politico previews the March 31 contest to succeed Democratic Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand in New York’s 20th congressional district:
The stakes are especially high for new Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele and the GOP, since a win would provide the embattled chairman with some much-needed breathing room, and a loss would enable Democrats to frame the race as a validation of President Barack Obama’s stimulus package.
With 71,000 more registered Republicans than Democrats in the Hudson Valley-based 20th District, the contest between state Assembly Minority Leader James Tedisco (R) and Democratic businessman Scott Murphy offers Republicans a prime opportunity to pick up a Democrat-held seat.
But despite the district’s Republican lean, Obama narrowly carried it and Gillibrand easily won reelection in 2008 with 62 percent of the vote.
