Back in May, Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner penned a letter that lays out in glorious detail the misconceptions and wrong-headed thinking that pervade the Obama Administration’s approach to energy and the environment, taxation and to the economy in general.

The letter was a response to one written by Rep. Charles Boustany (R-LA7) (a member of the Ways and Means Committee), expressing his concern for the Obama Administration’s plan to rescind certain oil and gas tax deductions which they characterize as “loopholes”. The economy of Louisiana’s Seventh District, in the southwest part of the state, is heavily dependent on the oil and gas, oil service and petrochemical industries. To paraphrase Boustany’s basic question: How many jobs will my district lose, Mr. Secretary, when you “close the tax loopholes” on oil and gas drilling and production?

Secretary Geithner’s reply belies the Obama Administration’s hostility to oil and gas and their willful ignorance in the realm of energy policy.

Garden variety stupidity might be observed in a statement or point of view that is merely ignorant, misinformed or ill-considered; stupidity of this type occasionally affects us all. It is one-dimensional and generally benign in the long run.

But the transcendently stupid statement is a true gem, like a highly flawed diamond; it is multifaceted and multidimensional; it may even tease with glimmers of brilliance. The more you study it, though, the more glaring the flaws.

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Beginning with his tax difficulties, and continuing through the puzzling narrative of when and what he knew about the AIG bonuses, Treasury Secretary Geithner has done little to inspire the confidence of the American people. Oddly, Secretary Geithner continued his bizarre and puzzling conduct this week, making flatly contradictory statements about the dollar in a span of only 24 hours. This weakens confidence not only in him, but in the currency he is entrusted to protect.

On Tuesday, Secretary Geithner testified before the House Financial Services Committee that he ‘categorically renounces,’ recent proposals from China and others to shift away from the dollar as the world’s reserve currency [see hearing transcript below]. The next morning in New York, speaking to the Council on Foreign Relations, he was asked about the same proposals and said he is ‘quite open,’ to them [see press report below].

Really, Mr. Secretary? Is it too much to ask that your position remain unchanged over a 24 hour period?

Excerpt from Secretary Geithner’s March 24th testimony before the Financial Services Committee at approximately 11:30am:

http://gop.gov/resources/library/members/az/03/World-Currency-Question-3-24.wmv

Representative Bachmann: We’ve seen both China, Russia, and Kazakhstan, make calls for an international monetary conversion to an international monetary standard as soon as the G20, and I’m wondering would you categorically renounce the United States moving away from the dollar and going to a global currency as suggested this morning by China and also by Russia, Mr. Secretary?

Secretary Geithner: I would, yes.

As reported in the Washington Times:

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/mar/26/geithner-gaffe-on-dollar-roils-stock-bond-markets/

An unguarded comment by Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner on Wednesday set off a sudden drop in the dollar and contributed to a chain of market-rocking events that included a setback in the stock market and a sharp uptick in interest rates.

Mr. Geithner appeared to lend his support to a proposal by China’s central bank governor to replace the dollar as the world’s reserve currency with a basket of currencies that would be managed by the International Monetary Fund. In an appearance before the Council on Foreign Relations in New York on Wednesday morning, Mr. Geithner raised eyebrows by saying that ‘we’re actually quite open to that’…