After Months on Hot Seat, Bailout Director Nears Exit

After Months on Hot Seat, Bailout Director Nears Exit - 4/29/2009

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HEADLINES \| SETTLEMENTS AND DISMISSALS \| COURT FILINGS LINKS TO OTHER NEWS \| NEWS ARCHIVE	HEADLINES ARCHIVED SETTLEMENTS AND DISMISSALS ARCHIVED

HEADLINE NEWS:

After Months on Hot Seat, Bailout Director Nears Exit
David Cho

Washington Post. April 29, 2009
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EXCERPT: The first time Neel Kashkari, the head of the Treasury Department's bailout operations, was called to testify before an oversight committee on Capitol Hill, he placed an index card on the table in front of him with the words: "The louder he yells at me, the calmer I will be." Indeed, the chairman of the committee, Rep. Dennis J. Kucinich, laid into Kashkari repeatedly over nearly four hours. For the past six months, Kashkari, has been a face of the government's financial rescue and a sponge for congressional anger over the program. Although he scrambled to get the rescue's operations running, often sleeping in his office and working seven days a week, during hearings lawmakers questioned his competence. Rep. Elijah E. Cummings (D-Md.) once called him "a chump." As Kashkari prepares to leave the Treasury -- Friday is probably his last day, he says -- some of the Democrats who excoriated him during hearings acknowledge that Kashkari played a vital role in arresting a meltdown of the nation's financial system. "Don't take it personally," Kucinich (D-Ohio) told Kashkari behind closed doors after grilling him during a separate marathon session on Capitol Hill, according to people who were present. "I think you're doing a great job." Kashkari, a Republican who had aspired to work in the Bush White House before coming to the Treasury in 2006, also got high marks from Obama officials for quickly building a financial rescue operation, which is now up to 135 staff members and growing. "I deeply admire the guy," Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner said in an interview. "I think he's a person of integrity. He's creative, pragmatic and gets stuff done. I think he's an A-plus public servant."

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