Kashkari as Paulson’s ‘chump’?

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Whatever Neel Kashkari is earning to head the Treasury’s financial-system bailout program, he surely must be thinking that it’s not enough.

At a hearing held by the House Oversight and Government Reform subcommittee today, one congressman questioned whether Kashkari was Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson’s ‘chump.’

Another congressman, firebrand Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio), lambasted the Treasury for unilaterally deciding this week to junk its original rescue plan of buying bad mortgages from banks.

‘Maybe this is some kind of game to some people in the administration,’ Kucinich lectured the 35-year-old Kashkari. ‘They’re on their way out of office and they just feel they can do whatever they want.’

Even a Republican, Darrell Issa of San Diego County, joined in. ‘I don’t know whether to call this ‘fire, ready, aim’ or something more pejorative,’ he said of the rescue program’s shift.

Kashkari repeated Paulson’s assertion Thursday that the Bush administration’s efforts had stabilized the banking system with the program’s direct capital injections into banks and other financial firms. ‘Our system is stronger and more stable than just a few weeks ago,’ he said.

Bloomberg News has an entertaining read on the hearing, including the ‘chump’ exchange, here.