At a moment of financial peril in 1999, Time magazine’s cover featured a Federal Reserve chairman and Treasury secretary under the headline: “The Committee to Save the World.”
In winter 2009, Ben S. Bernanke, the current Fed chairman, and Timothy F. Geithner, the Treasury secretary, helped do just that, according to business leaders and officials from the wildly divergent administrations of Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama.
Their reward: in different but equally embarrassing ways, each man last week became a casualty of the popular discontent terrifying political Washington.
Mr. Bernanke unexpectedly scraped for votes for confirmation to a second term. Mr. Geithner battled speculation about declining influence after Mr. Obama embraced new policies to restrain Wall Street.
Both appear set to survive. The White House reiterated confidence in Mr. Geithner, notwithstanding criticism from both ends of the political spectrum. And the Obama administration joined its most conspicuous adversaries — leaders of the Republican Party and Wall Street — in scrambling to rescue Mr. Bernanke.
Such rare bipartisan teamwork shows that even broad populist anger has limited power. But as Mr. Obama prepares for the State of the Union address, neither he nor anyone in Washington can be confident of what those limits are, or when they will next be overrun.
Ripples From a Defeat
Both parties keep sifting for lessons from the stunning capture by Scott Brown, a Republican, of the Senate seat once held by Edward M. Kennedy. Massachusetts voters spoke more loudly than clearly.
A poll by The Washington Post, the Harvard School of Public Health and the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation found that Tuesday’s voters opposed the health care legislation in Washington 48 percent to 43 percent. But 68 percent backed the state’s own system of near-universal coverage, whose core elements were the model for Mr. Obama and the Democrats.
Mr. Brown tapped into national disapproval of swelling deficits. But he proposed tax cuts to reduce the 10 percent jobless rate — the Republican flip side of Democratic spending to achieve the same goal.
To some degree, his victory alarmed incumbents in both parties. But it panicked Congressional Democrats, who have long expected midterm election setbacks.
“We knew this was going to be a bumpy ride,” said Representative Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, chairman the House Democrats’ campaign committee. “But I think one of the key lessons coming out of Massachusetts was, the message that we are moving forward on jobs and the economy has not broken through.”
Complications for Mr. Geithner began developing late last year. Alarmed by persistently high unemployment, Mr. Obama publicly challenged bankers to increase lending and decrease resistance to new Wall Street regulations. Meanwhile, he directed Mr. Geithner and Lawrence H. Summers, the White House economic adviser, to incorporate additional regulations suggested by Paul A. Volcker, the former Fed chairman, that both officials had previously sidetracked.
In an interview, Mr. Summers recalled “very substantial discussions with Paul Volcker” on his ideas for limiting the size and scope of financial firms to curb systemic risk. Mr. Obama and his advisers reached consensus on their approach last month.
But the White House decision to unveil it with a rhetorical flourish less than 48 hours after Mr. Brown’s victory gave the appearance of a drastic shift in tone and policy, undercutting Mr. Geithner’s measured efforts to stabilize financial markets.
It also fueled the brushfire heading toward Mr. Geithner’s partner, Mr. Bernanke.
White House Defense
White House aides concluded that they had to douse that fire after the Senate majority leader, Harry Reid, publicly equivocated on Mr. Bernanke, whose term expires Jan. 31.
The chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, upbraided Mr. Reid in a telephone call, saying the administration and sagging markets “need something stronger from the Senate majority leader.” A Reid aide noted that the call had included some of Mr. Emanuel’s characteristic profanity.
By Friday afternoon, Mr. Reid had issued a statement backing the Fed chairman. Mr. Obama, Mr. Emanuel, Mr. Geithner and David Axelrod, a political adviser, leaned on others.
To solidify Republican support, the administration used backstage assistance from some of the very executives with whom Mr. Obama has been picking public fights, including members of the Financial Services Forum, a nonprofit policy group for major financial businesses. The investor Warren Buffett and Jeffrey R. Immelt, the chairman of General Electric, helped contact senators, a senior official said.
Over the weekend, Senator Christopher J. Dodd of Connecticut, the Democratic chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, Senator Judd Gregg, Republican of New Hampshire, and Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Republican leader, all predicted Mr. Bernanke’s confirmation. Thus a week of populist revolt ended with signs that Mr. Obama would retain, at least for now, his two highest-profile economic policy allies.
“Tim Geithner helped steer the financial sector and the entire economy through the worst crisis since the Great Depression,” Mr. Emanuel said in an interview. “He’s not going anywhere.”