Timing is everything

October 25, 2005

I have no strong feelings about Ben Bernanke’s nomination to replace Alan Greenspan as chairman of the Federal Reserve. I’ve seen several trusted sources say positive things about him — including Prof. DeLong, Max Sawicki, and Angry Bear — so I’m inclined to say he’s a good choice. I am, however, intrigued by the timing of the announcement.

In a Wall Street Journal column today, Fred Barnes, who described the nomination as being as “risk-free as possible,” said Bernanke was slated to get the call anyway, but the announcement was moved up.

In fact, the president had settled on Mr. Bernanke, 51, by late last week, though the actual nomination was not to be announced until later this month or early November.

Hmm, the White House had planned to wait on Bernanke, but pushed the nomination up. I wonder what other story they were hoping to distract attention from? It’s not like there’s anything else of political importance in the news, right? Oh wait…

Let’s also not forget, this is the second time in recent months that the White House has played fast and loose with their nomination calendar.

President George W. Bush’s nomination of a new Supreme Court justice [John Roberts] may give White House adviser Karl Rove a temporary reprieve from public scrutiny of his role in the disclosure of an intelligence operative’s identity.

Bush accelerated his search for a Supreme Court nominee in part because of special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald’s investigation into the leak of a CIA agent’s name, according to Republicans familiar with administration strategy.

Bush originally had planned to announce a replacement for retiring Justice Sandra Day O’Connor on July 26 or 27, just before his planned July 28 departure for a month-long vacation at his Crawford, Texas, ranch, said two administration officials, who spoke on the condition they not be named.

The officials said those plans changed because Rove has become a focus of Fitzgerald’s interest and of news accounts about the matter.

At least the Bush gang is consistent. They have one cynical, media-manipulation strategy and they stick with it.

And as with the last one, the announcement’s interruption of much more interesting topics was short lived.

  • The White House doesn’t seem to realize how much the liberal/progressive scene has changed while they’ve been in office. A large number of good bloggers, the arrival of Air America, even a few journalists showing a hint or two of life … these gimmicks – jumped-ahead nomination announcements, Friday afternoon bad-news releases, etc. – that used to serve them well just don’t anymore. In fact, they underscore administrative sleeze, like the stereotyped used car huckster.

  • I understand that Bernanke endorsed
    the obscene tax cuts for the wealthy.
    Correct me if I’m wrong – I’m too lazy
    to do a lot of digging on this. Of course,
    his job is monetary policy, not fiscal
    policy, so maybe his endorsement is
    hollow politicizing trumping sound
    economic policy, which is the norm
    these days.

    I can understand tax cuts as fiscal
    policy at times, but shouldn’t they
    go to the driving engine of the
    economy – the consumer, who
    accounts for 2/3 of the GDP,
    instead of the filthy rich?

  • It pushed the “Cheney Knew” article in my local (NY Times owned) paper to A3, in an abbreviated version. That is probably the best they could hope for with this maneuver.

  • Next he’ll just start creating positions so that he can constantly nominate people, instead of the constant campaign it’s the constant nomination. Because, you see, nominating people is “something I’m good at!” Oh wait, not going so well is it.

    When I read this news first I saw “close advisor to the President” and I thought oh my, then I got to the sentence that said “joined the President’s staff in January” – so it’s kind of like milk in the fridge from “over the weekend”, still OK for coffee but not for cereal.

  • The bizarre thing is that their most qualified nominees are the ones they make in a hurry when they’re trying to change the subject. It tells you a lot about what they’re putting the extra effort into.

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