Summers Questioned
Obama mentioned Kohn to House Democrats in the course of defending Summers after Representative Ed Perlmutter of Colorado questioned whether Obama should nominate the former Treasury secretary.
The president “took a minute to stand up for Larry Summers,” Representative Brad Sherman of California said after the meeting. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, a Nevada Democrat, said after the Senate meeting with Obama that party members in his chamber will support the president’s choice for the Fed, “no matter who it is.”
White House officials have expressed frustration with the public speculation that has surrounded one of the most consequential nominations Obama will make in his second term.
“He puts a lot more stock in private advice than public advice,” senior adviser Dan Pfeiffer said yesterday at a breakfast in Washington sponsored by the Christian Science Monitor. “He’ll weigh all that advice and then he’ll make a decision who he thinks is the best person for the job.”
Wider Universe
Before Obama spoke on Capitol Hill, National Economic Council Director Gene Sperling, also hinted that the universe of potential candidates was wider than those discussed in the news media. Sperling praised Yellen and Summers as “great intellects” about whom he’d only have “extremely positive” things to say, even in private.
The defense of Summers was also mounted by White House press secretary Jay Carney, who said that people should “separate” Obama’s defense of Summers from speculation about whom the president will choose as the Fed nominee.
Summers “stood shoulder to shoulder” with Obama through the financial crisis and “the president would defend that individual as I would,” Carney said.
Obama told the senators yesterday that, “when it comes down to their basic philosophy on the future of the Fed,” the differences between the candidates were so small “you couldn’t slide a paper between them,” Durbin said.