Obama to Appoint Jack Lew to Treasury

President Obama will name White House chief of staff Jack Lew to be the next Treasury Secretary Wednesday, Bloomberg's Hans Nichols reports, saying it's a "Done deal."

President Obama will name White House chief of staff Jack Lew to be the next Treasury Secretary Wednesday, Bloomberg's Hans Nichols reports, saying it's a "Done deal." Lew had been seen as the leading candidate to replace Timothy Geithner, who is stepping down ahead of the next deficit battle, for some time. Lew previously served as the director of the Office of Management and Budget.

After Bloomberg broke the news, BuzzFeed's Ben Smith tweeted a link to his June 2011 story, "Jack Lew: A liberal GOP says it trusts." Conservative blogger Ben Domenech, on the other hand, tweeted, "Jack Lew is one of the most partisan, most ideological members of the Obama team. Represents escalation of acrimony." It's all about timing, maybe? On Tuesday, Politico's Manu Raju reported that Lew has a contentious relationship with some Republican senators after debt ceiling negotiations.

The treasury secretary's signature graces U.S. currency, as New York's Kevin Roose points out, meaning Lew's unusual signature, shown on the memorandum below, could be on our dollar bills. But Roose is wrong that Lew's is "the world's worst signature." It's delightfully loopy.