Financial Commission stuck

Democratic and Republican leaders have yet to nominate a single person to the high-profile commission aimed at investigating the financial crisis, even though it was signed into law by President Obama more than a month ago.

House and Senate leaders, responsible for naming all 10 members of the panel, say an announcement could come as early as this week so that the panel, with broad subpoena power, can begin looking into the causes of the crisis.

“We may have a joint announcement from the leadership by the end of the week,” said Jim Manley, spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), on Tuesday.

But the panel, modeled after the famed Pecora Commission from the 1930s, is off to a slow start and may have a limited impact as the administration and Congress aim by the end of 2009 to complete the biggest overhaul of the financial system since the Great Depression.

Compared to the 9/11 Commission, the “Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission,” signed into law by Obama on May 20, is struggling to get off the ground. President Bush signed the 9/11 Commission into law in November 2002, and although he had opposed it for several months, he named Henry Kissinger as chairman the same day. All 10 members of the panel were in place within three weeks, despite criticism that led Kissinger and Democrats’ first choice, George Mitchell, not to serve on the commission.