Because Timothy Geithner is a Loser

So, Annette Nazareth and Caroline Atkinson, have withdrawn their names from consideration for positions working in the department of the Treasury, and we have blame placed on Senate delays, and the Obama Administration's thoroughly anal retentive vetting process.

I have no doubt that both of these issues figure prominently in some of the difficulties in staffing, though Obama is actually well ahead of the pace of recent transitions, but I think that there is another factor.

I think that a number of people out there believe that Timothy Geithner, and be extension, Lawrence Summers, simply don't get it with the banking crisis, and that they are wrong, and that they will continue to refuse to recognize the reality that a number of the gargantuan banks in the US are simply insolvent, and so they are refusing to do the sane thing, and put them in receivership. (or pre-privatization, nationalization, or whatever the frack you want to call it)

Simply put, they recognize that in the next 6-18 months, there is a real possibility that working with Timothy Geithner on their resume will look like working with Hank Paulson, and in any case, they want no part of a policy that they see as an train wreck.