Obama Team or He Man Woman Haters Club?

Just when you think the Obama team cannot disrespect women more, you find yet another misogynist in the pack.  This one really surprises me.  Politico  reports that the incoming Treasury Secretary has a problem with the FDIC’s Sheila Bair.  She is one of the FEW people in the entire bailout mess sticking up for the homeowner.  You may recall that Riverdaughter profiled her earlier on The Confluence.   I have nothing but nice things to say about her.  She is a a moderate Republican woman and she’s not part of the Obama team.  That is her supposed sin.  Congressman Barney Frank is standing up for her in a no nonsense way.

Frank also defended Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. Chairman Shelia Bair, who incoming Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner wants to push out of her post, Bloomberg reported Thursday.

Bair has reportedly butted heads with Geithner and other bailout officials during the course of the crisis. According to the Bloomberg report, Geithner doesn’t think she’s “a team player,” fighting for her agency rather than the good of the entire financial system.

Congressional Democrats — Frank first among them — on the other hand have heaped praise on Bair, a Republican, for her advocacy of foreclosure prevention, which she distilled into a proposal to use taxpayer money to refinance more than a million troubled mortgages. She has suggested that some of the $700 billion be used to fund her plan.

Needless to say, any decisions regarding Bair’s career that are seen as punitive could hurt Geithner — and Obama — on the Hill at a time when congressional cooperation is desperately needed to quickly move Obama’s economic proposals once he takes office.

Frank credited the current resistance to doing more about foreclosures to ruffled male feathers. “I think part of the problem now is that, to be honest, Shelia Bair has annoyed the Old Boys Club.” He likened the situation to several regulators “up in the treehouse with a ‘No Girls Allowed’ sign.”

Bair has been one of the few folks in the financial meltdown and bailout trying to clear it up by helping folks stay in their houses.  She has had some small level successes in the restructuring of IndyMac and has been praised for her work by most folks in liberal circles.  Is this another indication that the Obama Team is shaping up to be less than enlightened?

This was reported in Bloomberg (link above).

Geithner, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, has argued Bair isn’t a team player and is too focused on protecting her agency rather than the financial system as a whole, according to two congressional officials and a person familiar with his thinking. Bair has battled with Geithner and fellow regulators over aid to Citigroup Inc. and other emergency actions, making her enemies in the Bush administration.

“The idea of having an independent actor on the stage with you who might not be singing the same tune can make you nervous,” said Wayne Abernathy, a former Treasury official who is now executive vice president with the American Bankers Association in Washington. “They recognize that she’s a very independent person.”

I intend to stay on top of this situation.  It’s either a sign that women in finance are still being treated  poorly  (something I can attest to) or it’s a sign of what’s about to come for Hillary and Janet as they enter the Obamasphere of influence.  Will Obama side with Barney, Bair, the right thing to do, or his appointment?  Watch it now folks, the REAL decisions are setting in now.