Storm of criticism said to buoy Geithner

SECRETARY PUSHES BACK
Even ex-Bush aides sympathetic, sources say

By Brady Dennis
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, November 21, 2009

Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner has been a lightning rod for the Obama administration even longer than he's formally held his position. This week, the storm clouds returned.

Renewed doubts about his role in the financial bailout coupled with stubbornly grim news about the economy put him on the defensive on Capitol Hill, forcing the White House to offer a new public endorsement of Geithner. And after he participated in an unusually testy hearing with lawmakers on Thursday, even former Treasury officials from the George W. Bush administration called the department to offer encouragement, saying that they sympathized because of similar criticism they'd endured last year while ramping up the financial bailout initiative, according to Geithner's aides.

"We know we have a fight on our hands," one of those aides said.

At the White House, senior advisers to President Obama said Friday that they were not alarmed by Geithner's rough treatment at the hands of Republican lawmakers on the Joint Economic Committee, which even included a call for him to resign. The advisers dismissed the concerns raised by Republicans as political posturing, and said they are buoyed by the economy's gradual improvement over the course of the year.

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