WASHINGTON — President Obama and his top aides have already begun to discuss how a successor for Lawrence H. Summers, the chief economic gatekeeper inside the White House, can help reshape the administration’s economic team without signaling major changes in policy, either to markets or voters.
Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner arriving Wednesday to appear before the House Financial Services Committee.
The latest on President Obama, his administration and other news from Washington and around the nation. Join the discussion.
Senior aides said Wednesday that no decision was imminent, and that Mr. Summers would remain in charge of the flow of economic information to Mr. Obama until the end of December. But they said it was clear that a new director of the National Economic Council would offer different strengths as the country confronts a new set of economic challenges. Officials dampened speculation that the search had already centered on a short list mainly of corporate chiefs or bankers.
But White House officials said the president was likely to consider business experience and to look for women who might fill the post.
“There is not a secret list taped to the bottom of a desk,” said Jen Psaki, the deputy communications director at the White House. “The president will consider a range of options for the position, but the most important quality is, who is the best person for the job? Who is the right member of the team?"
Since Mr. Summers’s departure had been anticipated internally — he had said he needed to return to Harvard by January to retain his tenure — White House officials led by Rahm Emanuel, the chief of staff, had been giving thought to candidates who would give the administration more credibility with the business community.
Mr. Summers’s replacement will also have to help repair the political damage that Mr. Obama has sustained from the government’s early response to the economic crisis, championed by Mr. Summers, and the extended period of high unemployment and economic uncertainty. The new economic team will take over at the start of a politically treacherous phase that includes the president’s re-election campaign.
Even as the lineup shifts, what is clear is that the one member of Mr. Obama’s original economic quartet who will remain, Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner, emerges as the team’s unquestioned captain, assuring a measure of continuity in the face of the administration’s critics.
Mr. Geithner acquires that status not only because he is outlasting the others but because he has gained the president’s confidence for his stewardship despite brickbats from the political right and left, administration officials say. After a rocky start in 2009 that prompted much speculation that Mr. Geithner would be the first to leave, and not voluntarily, now officials say he could well stay through Mr. Obama’s term.
The question before Mr. Obama, aides say, is how to find someone who brings the breadth of economic knowledge of Mr. Summers, a former Treasury secretary and Harvard president, while at the same time reaching out broadly for new approaches.
“Larry was a spectacular guy for the crisis,” said David Axelrod, special adviser to the president. “There isn’t a person alive with a greater sweep of knowledge and insight than Larry. I don’t expect that we are going to find another Larry Summers. Circumstances have changed.”
Said Mr. Geithner, in an interview, “There is no other Larry Summers on the planet,” adding, “That model is not replicable.”
As an intellect, Mr. Summers was an unmatched powerhouse inside the White House, providing input on a wide range of domestic issues that included the stimulus package, the budget and the rescue of the auto industry, but also international economics; he recently returned from a trip to China. Among the issues he felt free to express his views on were health care, climate change and housing.
But as the person charged with managing the economic debate inside the White House, Mr. Summers is seen by some in the administration as a powerful voice who often overpowered the views of others, even as he presented those views to the president for consideration.
Some colleagues called him Dr. No for being so quick to shoot down others’ economic policy ideas while putting too few of his own on the table. And while they credit Mr. Summers for exploring all sides of an economic issue, they complained that he took so long doing that he wore out even the president’s patience on occasion — as in the development of Mr. Obama’s recent package of incentives for business investments and for financing job-creating infrastructure projects.
Mr. Summers inspired loyalty among his staff and admiration inside the West Wing for a man whose ambition and résumé always seemed a bit out of sync with his bureaucratic title of director at the National Economic Council. It is a job intended for someone who is particularly skilled at managing staff and information, a skill some thought Mr. Summers lacked.
“Is he the most organized person on the planet? No,” said one Washington Democrat with close ties to the White House, who asked for anonymity to discuss internal administration staff issues. “Is he the best person to run a process? No. And is that pivotal when you are running 17 things in the middle of a crisis? Absolutely.”
To allies of Mr. Summers, his style should have come as little surprise to the president. In a phone call before he accepted the job, Mr. Summers promised Mr. Obama that he would present all views, but said, “I will have strong views, which I will want to share with you and to share with others,” according to people familiar with the conversation.
News of his departure emerged earlier than White House officials had expected, in part by design of Mr. Summers, who had not wanted his leaving to be seen as a repudiation of his tenure if it came after expected Democratic losses in the midterm elections.
But the White House is well along in rebuilding a team. Mr. Geithner has had several conversations with Mr. Obama in their private, weekly meetings about how to reconstitute the core group of economic advisers in the latter half of the president’s term. “Tim, Rahm and Larry and the president have given it a lot of thought,” said one senior adviser close to all four.
The new team is already emerging.
In a further sign of continuity, Mr. Obama named two people from within his administration to fill the vacancies of Christina D. Romer, the former chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers, and Peter R. Orszag, the first budget director.
The administration on Wednesday also named Tim Massad, a Treasury official, as acting director to replace Herbert M. Allison Jr., who served as director of the Treasury’s office of financial stability. Mr. Allison had overseen the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program. Austan D. Goolsbee, a campaign adviser who was a member of the Council of Economic Advisers, was promoted this month to succeed Ms. Romer. And the president nominated Jack Lew, a deputy secretary of state, to be the new budget director — a job he already held at the end of the Clinton administration, a time of budget surpluses.
Read Full Article »