Barbara Boxer: Time for Ben Bernanke to go

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With Democrats increasingly anxious about this year’s midterm election in the face of a stubbornly high unemployment rate, Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) today came out against a second term for Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke.

Breaking with President Obama, a fellow Democrat, who renominated Bernanke, Boxer said, ‘It is time for change.’

Although Bernanke took ‘important steps to prevent what many economists believe could have been an even greater economic catastrophe,’ Boxer said in a statement, ‘... it is time for Main Street to have a champion at the Fed. Dr. Bernanke played a lead role in crafting the Bush administration’s economic policies, which led to the current economic crisis. Our next Federal Reserve chairman must represent a clean break from the failed policies of the past.’

Boxer, an outspoken liberal up for reelection this year, is seen as particularly vulnerable by the GOP.

White House spokesman Bill Burton said Obama ‘continues to think he is the best person for the job’’ and will be confirmed by the Senate.

-- Richard Simon in Washington

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