I’ve been telling people since Friday night that while I’m fully supportive of the sentiment behind the calls by Michele Bachmann and Mike Lee, among others, for Tim Geithner’s resignation as Treasury Secretary,  I disagree.

My take: Geithner can leave his job in January of 2013 and no sooner.

I want Geithner as the albatross. Just like I want Eric Holder and Janet Napolitano rotting around Barack Obama’s neck. I want Geithner there as well.

If he were to leave, surely some other less-well-known but equally obnoxious statist would take his place to continue the same failed policies of this president which led to the Standard & Poor’s downgrade on Friday. But with Geithner gone the political price for those policies would be less catastrophic – because the public wouldn’t know the replacement and thus wouldn’t have someone to personify the policies.

No. We need Geithner. And we’ll have him as well.

Timothy Geithner will remain on the job as Treasury secretary, the Treasury Department announced Sunday in a written statement.

“Secretary Geithner has let the president know that he plans to stay on in his position at Treasury. He looks forward to the important work ahead on the challenges facing our great country,” said Treasury Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs Jenni LeCompte.

Is this a terrible thing for the country? Absolutely. Is it an extreme disadvantage to have an incompetent boob as the Secretary of the Treasury? Big-time.

But what’s terrible for the country is Obama. And we’re now at the point where all that matters is getting rid of Obama.

Geithner personifying Obama’s fiscal and economic policy makes it easier to get rid of Obama next November.

Nothing will improve until then anyway. It would be nice if things didn’t get much worse, but that die is basically cast at this point. We’re adrift on a stormy sea, with no captain at the helm. Our captain is instead leading a conga line belowdecks.

We’re mixing metaphors here, yes. I know.

So when the ship hits the rocks and we’re all scrambling for the life rafts, at least we’ll know the responsible captain by the albatross around his neck so we can lock him in his cabin. That’s Geithner, hopefully. And Holder. And Napolitano. And Ken Salazar, Kathleen Sebelius, Stephen Chu and Ray LaHood.

I don’t want any of them to leave. Let them go down with Obama’s ship.