Weekly Wrap

We know he drives a truck--but what kind? Is it one of those monster-ma-deals seen at car shows, the ones that drive up and over a whole row of puny imports, crushing them in the process?

Whatever it is, the Wrentham Wrecker (owner: Scott Brown, Republican) has been leaving tread marks all over the political landscape. The first to be flattened was Martha Coakley, Massachusetts AG and Brown's opponent in the race for Ted Kennedy's U.S. Senate seat. In Tuesday's election, Brown won going away. Add to the road kill President Barack Obama's health reform bill, which succumbs to the new math in the Senate.

Want more victims? How about Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner? Check out where he is standing in the photo below, taken at a press conference yesterday:


Turbo Tim is at the far left, displaced in Obama's inner circle by former Fed Head Paul Volcker (the six-foot-seven legend looming large behind the President). Geithner has been coddling the big banks on Wall Street throughout the financial crisis, while Volcker has been urging the President to cut them down to size. Brown's victory has improved Obama's hearing, thus Thursday's rollout of the new Volcker Rule.

Geithner does not get a rule named after him. Instead, he gets to go stand in the corner. Look at the photo again. How bad is that when your boss uses MA Congressman Barney Frank as a physical buffer between you and him? O.K., O.K., maybe Obama was just trying to win back some favor with Bay Staters by showcasing their congressman. Still, Tim does not look happy. He has since leaked his displeasure with the bank bashing, which means that his days on the job may be numbered.

Another heavyweight in line for a pink slip is none other than the current Federal Reserve Chair, Ben Bernanke, who needs to be confirmed by the Senate before the end of next week to be assured of another term. Today Senators are falling over one another reaching for the microphone to announce to their constituents that they will not support Bernanke's nomination. Credit Brown for this rush to the exits, as well as for Obama's instant lame-duckery. (How's this for lame: Obama jumped on Brown's bandwagon, I mean truck, by claiming in a morning-after interview that he was the original Scott Brown in 2008, before Scott Brown even thought about being Scott Brown.) Amazing; Obama went from the hunter to the hunted in just one year.

Anyone get the plate number on that truck?

[update 01-28-10:]

The Senate votes on Bernanke's nomination...