GEITHNER 'STRESS TEST': Behind the scenes w/ Obama, Hillary, Plouffe, Pfeiffer -- BRENDAN BUCK'S LAST DAY WITH BOEHNER! Named AHIP V.P. -- MAX GLEISCHMAN TO NYC as chief spokesman for Samantha Power Presented by

BREAKING – AFP/Kano, Nigeria: “Boko Haram releases a new video claiming to show the missing Nigerian schoolgirls, alleging that they had converted to Islam and would not be released until all militant prisoners were freed.”

JUICY BITS from “Stress Test: Reflections on Financial Crises,” by former Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner (with an assist from Michael Grunwald), out today from Crown:


--“As the crisis was winding down, I suggested to my adviser Jake Siewert that Treasury ought to put out a long white paper explaining the rationale behind all our controversial decisions. He grinned and said: ‘Sounds great. Why don’t you give it a shot?’” (p. 18)

--DARTMOUTH UNDERGRAD: “I was a registered Republican then, but without much conviction. I had no passion for politics. … I did develop a strong aversion to the strident conservative Republican political movement that was spreading across college campuses … After the Dartmouth Review, the intellectual center of the movement, published a McCarthy-style list of gay students on campus [from “membership and correspondence files of the Gay Student Alliance,” per a 1981 N.Y. Times article], I ran into a Review writer named Dinesh D’Souza at a coffee shop and asked him how it felt to be such a dick.” (p. 30)

--CONFIRMATION CONTROVERSY over unpaid payroll taxes from his time at IMF: “‘You’re going to be fine,’ Rahm [Emanuel, the first chief of staff, said during the transition]. ‘They just want to cut you and make you bleed.’ … I was embarrassed by the public debate about whether I was both venal and incompetent or merely incompetent.” (p. 270, 273)

--“Sometimes it was hard to tell if Larry [Summers, Obama’s economic adviser, who had been a mentor to Geithner and became something of a rival] was punching holes in an idea because he had a genuine problem with it, or just because he was a world-class hole-puncher.” (p. 288)

--“I used to joke that I was personally responsible for the birth of the Tea Party, because Rick Santelli’s rant on CNBC was a response to the mortgage modification program, and the Tea Party movement focused so much of its initial fire on the financial rescue.” (p. 364)

--“I kind of liked Boehner. He had an easygoing manner, and he seemed lonely in his new position as a pragmatic conservative surrounded by extremists. … Boehner sometimes warned us his caucus didn’t believe in compromising with the President, and might turn on him if he cut a deal. I’m sure he emphasized these pressures as a negotiating stance, pushing us to make concessions to get the Tea Party insurgents off his back. But the pressures were real. … [M]any in Washington believed that House Majority Leader Eric Cantor wanted his job. …

“One problem for Boehner [during the fiscal cliff] was that many House Republicans still believed we should just capitulate to their demands; another problem was that they couldn’t agree on their demands.” (p. 459, 487)

--UNEASY ABOUT BASHING BANKERS: “On my third full day as secretary, January 29 [2009], I was supposed to have my first one-on-one meeting with President Obama. As I was about to walk into the Oval Office, Stephanie Cutter, a veteran Democratic operative who was handling our communications strategy, told me we would have a ‘pool spray,’ a photo opportunity for the White House press. The President and I would make brief remarks about executive compensation, responding to a report that Wall Street firms had paid their executives big bonuses while piling up record losses in 2008. ‘Here’s what you’re going to say,’ Cutter said.

“She handed me the text, and I skimmed the outrage I was expected to express. I’m not very convincing as an angry populist, and I thought the artifice would look ridiculous. ‘I’m not doing this,’ I said. Instead, I sat uncomfortably next to the President while he expressed outrage. Americans were furious about bailouts for overpaid bankers, and the White House political team wanted us to show we were on the right side of the backlash. … The public outrage was appropriate, … but I didn’t see how we could ever satisfy it. We had no legal authority to confiscate the bonuses that had been paid during the boom.” (p. 290-1)

--REBUKING MARK KIRK: “I remember on my first trip to Beijing as secretary, an embassy official called to tell me that Mark Kirk of Illinois, one of the few nominally moderate Republicans left in Congress [then in House; elected Senator in 2010], had just held an unusual meeting with Chinese officials. Kirk had advised them not to buy Treasuries or other U.S. government debt, warning them that our spending was driving us toward default, and that the Fed was creating hyperinflation.

“I couldn’t believe it. Not only were those fears delusional, but he was undermining American interests on foreign soil. I called him on his way out of China to explain that there was this noble tradition in politics that you don’t criticize the United States while you’re abroad – and you definitely shouldn’t say we’re going to default on our debts. But partisan politics no longer seemed to stop at the water’s edge.” (p. 364-5)

--SCOTT BROWN’S GAPE: “Dealing with Congress, to put it mildly, did not feel like a careful, deliberative journey in search of the best public policy. I remember going to meet the personable Senator Brown [R-Mass., now running for Senate in N.H.], who had recently arrived in Washington after a campaign spent attacking the ‘Cornhusker Kickback’ … We talked about our kids and about triathlons.

“When the conversation finally turned to substance, he said he liked the idea of financial reform and expected to be with us. But without any irony or self-consciousness, he said he needed to protect two financial institutions in Massachusetts from the Volcker Rule’s restrictions. Then he furrowed his brow and turned to his aide. ‘Which ones are they, again?’ he asked.” (p. 421)

--SUGGESTED HILLARY AS SUCCESSOR: “I gave the President a long list of potential replacements for me. Jack Lew, who had just replaced [Peter] Orszag as budget director, was an experienced fiscal negotiator. Erskine Bowles would have credibility with many Republicans, which would be important with a divided government. I even suggested asking Hillary Clinton to take her star power from State to Treasury; among her many strengths, she had an underappreciated ability to reach across the aisle.” (p. 455-6)

--FISCAL POLITICS: “At a meeting early in 2011 in [Chief of Staff Bill] Daley’s office to discuss fiscal strategy, we debated how to respond to the Republican push for cuts in domestic spending. David Plouffe, who had just replaced David Axelrod as the President’s top political adviser, made the case that we couldn’t ignore the public clamor for fiscal discipline, and, politics aside, the President believed in fiscal discipline. ‘We didn’t run on a platform of permanently increasing the size of government,’ said Plouffe, who had managed the President’s 2008 campaign. Plouffe wasn’t suggesting that we lurch into austerity, just that we could afford to be against ALL cuts. …

“Dan Pfeiffer, the President’s communications director [now senior adviser] and another 2008 campaign veteran, often took the other side of the debate, saying we couldn’t afford to alienate our base and split a weakened Democratic Party in pursuit of an imaginary compromise with Republicans who didn’t want to compromise.

“At another meeting in the Roosevelt Room, I told the President I thought there was a chance that he could break at least some Republicans away from their no-new-taxes mantra and forge a deal to stabilize our long-term debt. It wouldn’t be a deal that his base would like, but if he wanted to get anything through the House, he couldn’t be bound by the demands of Democrats. ‘You have a chance to split the Republicans,’ I said. ‘But only if you’re willing to split the Democrats.’ …

“I remember during one Roosevelt Room prep session before I appeared on the Sunday shows, I objected when Dan Pfeiffer wanted me to say Social Security didn’t contribute to the deficit. It wasn’t a main driver of our future deficits, but it did contribute. Pfeiffer said the line was a ‘dog whistle’ to the left, a phrase I had never heard before. He had to explain that the phrase was code to the Democratic base, signaling that we intended to protect Social Security.” (p. 458-9, 467)

--DEDICATION: “For the intrepid public servants at the Treasury and the Federal Reserve who worked with great skill and devotion to help guide their country through the crisis.”

--ACKNOWLEDGMENTS: “Robert Barnett did me the favor of guiding me through the process, ... with his famous and rare mix of practical wisdom. …

“Michael Grunwald agreed to join me as a collaborator, taking leave from TIME, and worked valiantly to make the dark and complex mess of financial crises compelling and accessible. We didn’t know each other, and he had not covered the financial crisis from beginning to end, but I had read and admired his work. He was smart and wonderfully well-prepared, and brought a fresh and interesting perspective that was exceptionally valuable. He was relentless in pushing me to explain better the choices we made and the nature of our debate, and to add some life and color to our failures and our successes. …

“Tom Baxter, Matt Kabaker, Jenni LeCompte, Meg McConnell, Chris Meade, Mark Patterson, Laurie Richardson, Lee Sachs, Jake Siewert, Josh Steiner and Neal Wolin reviewed the entire book.” www.StressTestBook.com

YOU’RE INVITED! A week from today -- Mon., May 19 -- Secretary Geithner will headline PLAYBOOK LUNCH to discuss “Stress Test” with Ben "Morning Money" White and me. Doors open at 11:45 a.m. at The Hamilton, 14th and F. RSVP here. http://bit.ly/PBLunch

** A message from JPMorgan Chase & Co.: Our 2013 Corporate Responsibility Report is now available. Last year we launched New Skills at Work, a $250M, five-year initiative to close the skills gap, bringing together employers and training partners to share information and collaborate. Learn about this and other partnerships that help our communities thrive. Download the report. http://bit.ly/1jkFeWG **

FIRST LOOK – “AHIP Announces Brendan Buck as Spokesperson and Vice President of Communications”: “America’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP) President and CEO Karen Ignagni announced today that Brendan Buck has been named Vice President of Communications. … [Ignagni said:] ‘Brendan's experience and skill set will allow him to hit the ground running on day one. He's an effective communicator who knows how to tackle complex policy issues and skillfully navigate an ever-changing health care and media environment.’ …

“Buck [age 32, and the pride of Alpharetta, Ga.] comes to AHIP from the office of House Speaker John Boehner, where he's served as press secretary for more than three years. In 2012, he took a leave of absence from the speaker’s office to join the Romney presidential campaign, serving as press secretary to vice presidential nominee Congressman Paul Ryan. Before joining the House leadership, he was communications director for the Republican Study Committee … Buck got his start in Washington working for Congressman Tom Price … He’s also been a spokesman at the National Republican Congressional Committee.”

--Speaker Boehner: “More than four years ago, hardly anyone believed we could win back the House. Listening to the American people and earning back their trust led to a new kind of governing agenda: our ‘Pledge to America.’ Brendan was an absolutely crucial part of that process. Then, he took a leading role in our communications shop, holding the White House accountable in the middle of some of the biggest fights this town has seen in quite a while. I’ve appreciated his advice, his energetic advocacy, and his wit … Boehnerland will miss him.”

MAX GLEISCHMAN, who had been communications director for Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin, takes over today, at the U.S. Mission to the U.N., as Director of Communications and Spokesperson for Ambassador Samantha Power, replacing Nayyera Haq, from State's public affairs team, who pitched in for six months as acting director following Erin Pelton's departure.

--Ambassador Power: “It's great to have Max here in New York as part of the U.S. Mission. And as sad as I am to see Nayyera go, I'm happy she'll be able to return to her family in Washington. Max has had plenty of experience juggling hot policy issues. Now we just have to unleash him on Twitter.”

--Make sure you’re following: @gleischman … @AmbassadorPower

SPOTTED, at game 4 of the Wizards heartbreaker loss to the Pacers: Luke Russert in the front rows, sporting the throwback Wizards Michael Jordan jersey, and giving the refs the business.

… Actor Jesse Eisenberg, from "The Social Network," at the American University graduation Sunday which he attended to watch a family member graduate.

SENTENCE OF THE DAY, from DAVID CARR’s “The Media Equation” column on NYT Business cover: “A … coalition of tech companies — Amazon, eBay, Facebook, Google, Twitter, Yahoo, and just about every other digital company you have ever heard of — registered their opposition to changes [re net neutrality, to be voted on by FCC on Thu.] … The signatories did not mince words, calling the proposal ‘a grave threat to the Internet.’ … Translation: You are about to break the Internet and you will be deeply sorry if you do.” http://goo.gl/2Ye1BS (h/t Capital New York’s Media Pro)

LIVE TODAY, POLITICO’s newest series, ALL POLICY IS LOCAL: The first focus is ENERGY. The series covers the 2014 midterms in a new way, examining the intersection of politics and policy, and the impact on industry and community. In the debut piece, "Energy's continental divide," Andrew Restuccia reports from Weld County, Colo., on the Centennial State's fracking fight and closely watched Senate race. http://politi.co/1iH8vFK.

TWEET DU JOUR -- @BuzzFeedBen: “Lewinskygate... militias... think I'm going to do a list of terrible things from the 1990s that are back.”

FIRST PERSON -- “Hillary and Me: The 2008 campaign was a nightmare. Will 2016 be as bad?” by Glenn Thrush, for Politico Magazine: “I have no idea what kind of campaign Clinton will run if she decides to go for it in 2016. I do know she’ll be formidable if she runs as the earthy, empathetic Midwesterner who showed up in the spring of 2008 when, paradoxically, all was hope was lost. But that was late Hillary. Early Hillary – the aloof, front-running pre-New Hampshire vintage – was a genuine chore to cover. … [T]he campaign’s communication flaws were really just an extension of a deeper disorganization and internal confusion that even the least experienced reporter on her plane could see.

“It wasn’t her ill-fated decision to compete in Iowa … that was fatal. It was how hard she ran. This was a mad dash, not the strategic marathon run by the Obamaians … Clinton insisted on scheduling one or two more events per day than Obama did in an attempt, we assumed, to prove her earnestness and work ethic. That may seem like a minor matter but reporters … began to feel like hostages, especially compared with the Obama embeds who seemed fat, happy, healthy and well rested.” http://goo.gl/Ennpbz

DEEP DIVE – The New Yorker, “A Reporter at Large -- SCHOOLED: Cory Booker, Chris Christie, and Mark Zuckerberg had a plan to reform Newark’s schools. They got an education," by Dale Russakoff: “In the back seat of [an] S.U.V. [in Dec. 2009], Booker [now U.S. senator, then Newark mayor] proposed that he and Christie [then governor-elect] work together to transform education in Newark. They later recalled sharing a laugh at the prospect of confounding the political establishment with an alliance between a white suburban Republican and a black urban Democrat. Booker warned that they would face a brutal battle with unions … As if spoiling for the fight, Christie replied, ‘Heck, I got maybe six votes in Newark. Why not do the right thing?’ So began one of the nation’s most audacious exercises in education reform. …

“[F]our years later, Newark has fifty new principals, four new public high schools, a new teachers’ contract that ties pay to performance, and an agreement by most charter schools to serve their share of the neediest students. But residents only recently learned that the overhaul would require thousands of students to move to other schools, and a thousand teachers and more than eight hundred support staff to be laid off … Booker … said … that he understood families’ fear and anger … But he characterized the rancor as ‘a sort of nadir,’ and predicted that in two or three years Newark could be a national model of urban education.” http://goo.gl/P6wt1R

VIDEO DU JOUR: Michelle Obama (played by Sasheer Zamata) and Hillary Clinton (Vanessa Bayer) take snide shots during a “Mother’s Day Message” that was the cold open on “Saturday Night Live.” Michelle: “Hillary and I know how hard it is to be working mothers.” Hillary: “Absolutely. I know a little bit more. I mean, for years, I was flying all over the world dealing with some of the worst humanitarian crisis. I suppose it's also tough to make a chubby kid eat an apple.” Michelle: “Well, obesity is killing our children.” Hillary: “Absolutely. Not so much in Syria. There [are] more biological weapons. But kids, watch out for cakes!” http://goo.gl/a4f2x7

“ON TIME AND ON BUDGET”: Washington Monument reopens today -- AP’s Brett Zongker: “More than 150 cracks have been repaired, … and the 130-year-old Washington Monument will reopen Monday for the first time in nearly three years since an earthquake caused widespread damage. … New exhibits have been installed, and visitors can once again ride an elevator to look out from the highest point in the nation's capital. The full restoration cost $15 million. Businessman and philanthropist David Rubenstein contributed $7.5 million to pay half the cost and expedite the repairs. Rubenstein told [AP] that he was surprised how much the monument means to people who have written him letters and email. …

“During an early look at the restored monument, Rubenstein hiked to the top, taking the stairs in a suit and tie. Memorial plaques inside the monument from each state seemed to be clean and intact … The billionaire co-CEO of The Carlyle Group has been urging other philanthropists to engage in what he calls ‘patriotic philanthropy.’ … Rubenstein is co-chair of a campaign to raise funds to help restore the National Mall, serves as a regent of the Smithsonian Institution and is chairman of the Kennedy Center. …

“Some damaged marble was replaced with salvaged material or stone from the same Maryland quarry as the monument's original marble. The replacement stone had been saved from the steps of old Baltimore row houses.” http://goo.gl/JtPzGB

NETWORK NEWS … ABC’s David Muir: “Touchdown: the tornadoes caught on tape. The violent storms slicing across the country on this Mother’s Day.” … CBS’ Jeff Glor: “Severe weather in the heartland: Tornadoes rip across the nation's midsection -- and the danger is not over yet.”

BEYOND THE BELTWAY – “$474M for 4 failed Obamacare exchanges,” by Jennifer Haberkorn and Kyle Cheney: “Nearly half a billion dollars in federal money has been spent developing four state Obamacare exchanges that are now in shambles … Each of the states — Massachusetts, Oregon, Nevada and Maryland — embraced Obamacare, and each underperformed. … The federal government is caught between writing still more exorbitant checks to give them a second chance at creating viable exchanges of their own or, for a lesser although not inexpensive sum, adding still more states to HealthCare.gov. The federal system is already serving 36 states, far more than originally anticipated.” http://goo.gl/oXuvLy

MAYOR OF THE WORLD -- “Bloomberg defends Clinton on Benghazi,” by Maggie Haberman: “Michael Bloomberg says people who are criticizing Hillary Clinton over her handling of the Benghazi attacks are engaging in ‘cheap politics,’ and that both she and Jeb Bush would be ‘quality’ presidential choices. Bloomberg made the comments in a recent interview with POLITICO … ‘Hillary, you know, I’ve worked with [when she was a] senator and just as a friend, that sort of thing. I think most of the criticisms of Hillary are totally unfounded — you can maybe disagree with her policies, but what’d you expect her to do in Benghazi? … I mean, it’s that kind of cheap politics which I don’t like. She’s very competent. …

“The former mayor, who made his fortune on a financial technology and media company, said … he doesn’t really follow Twitter. ‘Kevin [Sheekey, a longtime adviser] will send me something when somebody tweets something stupid …When I said I was going to give $50 million [for gun control] there was a lot of activity on Twitter.’ During initial reports about that donation, Bloomberg told The New York Times that he’d earned his place in heaven. Asked about those much-publicized remarks, he said, ‘It was a joke, but that gave people fodder.’”

SPORTS BLINK – FIRST INTERVIEW -- “Donald Sterling tells Anderson Cooper: I was 'baited' into 'a terrible mistake',” by CNN’s Ismael Estrada and Catherine E. Shoichet: “‘When I listen to that tape, I don't even know how I can say words like that. ... I don't know why the girl had me say those things’ … ‘You're saying you were set up?’ Cooper asked. ‘Well yes, I was baited,’ Sterling said. ‘I mean, that's not the way I talk. I don't talk about people for one thing, ever. I talk about ideas and other things. I don't talk about people.’ …‘I'm not a racist,’ Sterling told Cooper. ‘I made a terrible, terrible mistake.’” http://goo.gl/QqaYdZ

BOEHNERLAND WEDDING: Cory Fritz, Team Boehner political communications director, married Sarah Zichi on Saturday night at the picturesque Silverbrook Farm, nestled between the Blue Ridge Mountains and Short Hill Mountain in Purcellville, Va. Boehnerlanders Brad Bailey and Jared Eichhorn were in the wedding party. A strong Ohio contingent -- including current and former staffers for Reps. Boehner, Tiberi and Joyce, and former Sen. Voinovich – made the trek.

BIRTHDAYS: Paul Begala (hat tip: Jon Haber) … ABC’s Stephanie Z. Smith! (h/t Jon Karl) … Kim Dixon of POLITICO … Amanda Miller of eBay in D.C. is 36 (h/t Hilary Miller) … Allie Kimmel, an L.A. for Rep Jared Polis (h/t Dustin Gillard) … Yogi Berra is 89 … composer Burt Bacharach is 86 … Steve Winwood is 66 … Emilio Estevez is 52 … Carla Hall ("The Chew") is 50 … actor Stephen Baldwin is 48 (h/ts AP)

BIRTHDAY WEDNESDAY: Connie Lawn is 70.

** A message from JPMorgan Chase & Co.: Our 2013 Corporate Responsibility Report is now available. Last year we launched New Skills at Work, a $250M, five-year initiative to close the skills gap, bringing together employers and training partners to share information and collaborate. Learn about this and other partnerships that help our communities thrive. Download the report. http://bit.ly/1jkFeWG **

Follow us on Twitter Anna Palmer @apalmerdc



Jake Sherman @JakeSherman