THAT DIDN’T TAKE LONG. INCOMING TREASURY SECRETARY ALREADY A GOP NON-FAVORITE.

John Boehner is apparently no Jack Lew fan, says Rober Samuelson:

Lew once had a reputation as a technocrat who bridged partisan differences. But this image has faded as he’s risen to positions of greater responsibility. In “The Price of Politics,” his book about the 2011 budget negotiations, journalist Bob Woodward reports that Republicans felt that Lew impeded success. Here’s Woodward’s version of one meeting between Obama and House Speaker John Boehner:

“And Mr. President, the speaker added, please don’t send Jack Lew. The budget director talked too much, was uncompromising, and Boehner’s staff did not believe he could get to yes.

“In an interview a year later, Boehner still had strong feelings about Lew. ‘Jack Lew said no 999,000 times out of a million,’ Boehner said, chuckling. Then he corrected himself, ‘999,999. It was unbelievable. At one point I told the president, keep him out of here. I don’t need somebody who just knows how to say no.’?” [Emph. added]

Wonderful! The coming debt-ceiling negotiations ought to go swimmingly. . . .