When do you think Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson will resign?

Right after we sign the check…

January 20, 2009 when he will be required to by custom. Why would he resign any sooner? If he resigned tomorrow, it would take a week or so to find a replacement. Then you have to schedule a confirmation hearing. That wouldn’t take place until after the election because 1/3 of the senators will be busy campaigning, so it would have to be squeezed in before the Thanksgiving break with the vote before the Christmas break. The new guy couldn’t be sworn in until the 1st week in January and then submit his resignation so the next president could nominate his own candidate.

The other alternative is name an undersecretary as temporary secretary but s/he would just be a placeholder with no real power.

I second galileogirl’s answer. First off, Bush has 112 days left until he’s out of office. Second, his successor will be elected in 35 days (or appointed within 71 if historical precedent tells us anything). Either way, he’s in no danger of losing his job because right now, he’s the one the President needs to keep screaming that the sky is falling so all his former co-workers over at Goldman Sachs will get to keep their mansions and cars, so the President isn’t going to fire him, and it would be politically stupid for Democrats to waste their time trying to remove him (and spending taxpayer money to do it) when he’ll be out on his ass in less than 4 months. Especially since signs point to Obama having about an 83% chance of winning the election, and we know that even if McCain pulls off the impossible, he’s not going to want to keep himself tied to Bush’s legacy, so out he goes. His appointment will expire at noon on 1/20/09…the only reason it wouldn’t would be if the Bush Administration cared about conflicts of interest, and one has to wonder if that term is even in their vocabulary after Thomas and Scalia appointed Bush to the Presidency in 2000, and after Cheney drew a severance package from Halliburton for his first 5 years in office while letting them have billions in no bid contracts.

When the new administration takes over. There will be no consequences for Paulsen.

Well Gonzales is off the hook and he is guilty of ongoing, long-term, purposeful malfeasance. Paulsen is just following orders.

“I’m not saying Secretary Paulson is Lex Luthor. I’m just saying $700 billion is exactly enough to build a death ray.” —Tim Siedell

Not until he and the rest of the CFR and TC “powers that be” finish robbing Americans of their wealth, silly!