for reporting from FNC’s Mike Emanuel:
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WH chief of staff Jack Lew is expected to be nominated to replace Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner, likely by the end of this week, according to two sources close to the process.
“It is all but a done deal,” one of the sources told Fox, adding that it would take something “extraordinary” to pop up in the next couple of days to derail the nomination.
Geithner has said for well over a year that he would like to leave the administration and spend more time with his family after a grueling time through the financial crisis in which he served as head of the NY Fed and the Treasury Department back to back.
Lew has become an Obama favorite through several top posts because of his sharp knowledge of the federal budget and no drama style.
Picking Lew is a sign the President knows his next Treasury Secretary will be smack in the middle of a series of budget battles, starting with the debt ceiling that will be taking place during the expected confirmation process.
A red flag is that during the last debt ceiling fight in the summer of 2011 Lew served as White House Budget Director and clashed repeatedly with Republicans, who may want to get a pound of flesh in confirmation hearings.
In fact, advisers to the President say Lew deliberately kept a low profile during the recent fiscal cliff talks so as not to enflame those tensions on the eve of the expected announcement at Treasury.
