Bob Herbert is hitting the nail on the head more and more often too:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/23/opinion/23herbert.html?em

The fact that a man like Merkley can shovel manure on a man like Bernanke helps to explain why democracy is failing this country.

Merkley could barely manage his rentals and eating a hotdog without looking foolish.

He's playing to the leftwing nuts on this posturing - unless he ahs a better solution which I haven't heard.

Then again, most of Congress doesn't have a clue either.

This could get interesting.

The populists take down Benanke. They Obama goes back to the bench to bring on Summers, who did Robert Rubins' bidding to shepherd through the repeal of Glass-Steagal on behalf of the Clinton administration.

If we didn't already have a front row seat, I might have paid for it.

This might be a "throwing out the bathwater" scenario, but I appreciate Merkley questioning the 8 years of Benacke's economic policies. Measuring these positions is fair. Many times on this blog, posters keep asking for accountability-let's have it. No one ever seems to be fired, or even questioned, it's always "party-lines" that are followed.

Better he should squeeze the truth out of 'Tax-Exepmt Timmy" Geithner on his premature payout of billions of AIG swaps at 100% to Goldman, Hitlerbank & Paribas. Merkley is a talentless showboat of the worst 'student body pres' ilk - he once turned up at our City-puppet 'Neighborhood Association' meeting when we had real land-use matters to discuss & pre-empted that with a lengthy monologue on his accomplishments as our State Rep. When at last I was able to ask a question of the Great Man on his recent vote to divert taxes to a PDX stadium boondoggle, he said he really opposed it, but didn't want to be the one to kill it! Profiles in Courage... I then told him I could create some jobs if he let me divert my tax payments to a carpentry business, & he suddenly had to leave.