Gee ...

... I wonder how we got into this mess:

WASHINGTON -- Two candidates for top jobs at the Treasury have withdrawn their names from consideration, complicating efforts by Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner to staff his department at a time of economic crisis, according to people familiar with the matter.

...

The Obama administration has recently ratcheted up its scrutiny of potential nominees. Lawyers have been poring over several years of potential Treasury appointees' tax returns and other financial and personal information, such as the legal status of household help.

Mr. Obama curtailed the ability of lobbyists to work in the administration. The Treasury also wants to avoid hiring anyone with ties to a bank that received bailout aid.

Now that there are rules, we discover that nobody qualifies. Finance before the bust was like Vietnam.

UPDATE: NC has some more thoughts on the same subject. Apparently, once you've eliminated the first round of looters because it looks bad, you have to proceed to the behind the scenes second stringers. She also mentions some upcoming changes to the blog, and I would sadly echo here departing sentiment.

Maybe I am getting burned out from the crisis, but I feel too much of my commentary keeps circling back to the same topics. The problems are not going away, and even if there are new news hooks, the themes aren't changing all that much, the bad policies, the bad assets, the lack of will to reform, the doublespeak. I suppose in times like these, making sure one is not part of the problem and doing what one can, even in a small way, to get things on a better path is a contribution. But the trajectory of policy seems immune to public opinion and reason.

And, no, this is not to say that I'm in the camp with Kudlow and Cramer and those jackasses.