In Lieu of Geithner

Said Obama: "In term number two,
For Treas'ry I want Mr. Lew.
I'll rely on his talents
To find fiscal balance,
And fight with Republicans, too."

It's reported that President Barack Obama will nominate Jacob ("Jack") Lew, his former budget director and current chief of staff, to succeed Timothy Geithner as Treasury Secretary.  As the mainstream media will tell you, this signals a change in focus from the global financial crisis that dominated the President's first term, toward budget fights with Congress, and long-term fiscal sustainability.  The Wall Street Journal characterizes Mr. Lew as "a veteran of numerous Washington budget battles, stretching back to his work as a senior congressional aide in the 1980s." Oddly, there is little initial signaling of congressional opposition to this proposed nomination, despite Mr. Lew's inflexible reputation and angry clashes with Republican aides during the 2011 debt ceiling fight. Former Senator Judd Gregg, a New Hampshire Republican, may have summed it up best: "He's a tough guy to negotiate with. He has his positions and he doesn't give much ground, though he's really a nice person."

Overheard at the White House Last Weekend

"Mr. Speaker, I surely desire
That the deadline will not just expire,
But I get my way if
We fall off the cliff
And rates on the rich revert higher."

In the continuing effort to reach a long-term deal to restrain Federal budget deficits and avoid the looming fiscal cliff, President Barack Obama and House Speaker John Boehner met at the White House this past weekend. At the same time, pundits on the Sunday morning talk shows pointed out the President's negotiating advantage: Although the fiscal cliff represents a package of tax hikes and spending cuts that supposedly nobody wants, the Republicans want them less then he does. That's because the reversion to the higher marginal tax rates paid by the rich during the Clinton administration, against which Congressional Republicans have attempted to hold the line, will happen automatically if no deal is reached. This dawning realization may portend a higher likelihood of both a dive over the "cliff" and a resolution more to the President's liking.

Secretly Serviced

Secret Servicemen, caught out with whores,
Sent a shock through the diplomat corps.
(It's a precept of theirs
That "foreign affairs
Are more in our purview than yours.")

Members of the US Secret Service assigned to prepare for President Barack Obama's arrival in Cartagena were accused of hosting prostitutes for overnight visits in their hotel rooms. This potentially critical lapse in security cast a pall over the President's arrival at the important Summit of the Americas in Colombia on Friday. However, it did not derail one key accomplishment: the implementation of the new US-Colombian free trade pact.

Hallowe'en in the West Wing

When the ranks of advisors had thinned
Who, for rest or reward, did rescind,
One could hear, while alone,
The faint, mournful moan
Of the shifting political wind.

The departure of - and (heretofore) lack of replacements for - Office of Management and Budget Director Peter Orszag (middle), Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel (2nd from right) and National Economic Council Director Larry Summers (back to camera) have left an eerie emptiness in the President's senior advisory group, on the Hallows' Eve before Election Day.