Obama: Why Geithner?

So, I'm in the camp of wanting Obama to succeed.  We simply can't afford for him to fail.  However, I am not in the camp of Whatever-Obama-Wants-Is-A-Great-Idea-To-Me.  First I had a problem with Bill Richardson, his nominee for Treasury Secretary.  It was a purely political move and I thought we were about Change We Can Believe In.  Now I have a real problem with Timothy Geithner, Obama's nominee for Treasury Secretary.  Geithner was the top executive in NYC while the entire credit derivatives fiasco went down.  In fact he calls it his "life's work".  Uh, really, your life's work was to oversee the greatest build-up and explosion of financial destruction seen since the Great Depression of the 1930's?!

Who wants this guy to lead our Treasury Department again?  

Why aren't people stepping up and asking these questions?  I'm reading NYT's LiveBlogging of Geithner's confirmation hearings and the only sane people in the room are Jim Bunning and Charles Grassley!  Trust me, I do not find myself agreeing with conservative Republicans often as they have as much to do with this as anyone.

Sure, Geithner's tax problems are troubling, but this is one step above driving in the carpool lane alone in my book.  I'm more concerned about whether Democrats are falling all-over themselves to endorse him based on his connections, rather than his ability to critically understand the drivers of the economic and financial crisis and create solutions that will solve the problems.

Right now, my bet is not.

I hope I'm wrong.

I am pissed at Eliot Spitzer.

Not because of this article at the WashPost that clearly lays out the parameters to see our way through this crisis, but for the fact that he was weak enough to make himself vulnerable to attack because of his previous extra-marital activities. He would make a great contributor to the Obama administration in designing a new financial regulatory system.
In fact, I think this article is going to be the beginning of a groundswell to absolve him from his previous activities and draft him into this administration. We could use someone who has a first-hand understanding of the current system's weaknesses in fixing the system.