Which in turn might make some people’s blood run cold to hear the president say of Geithner, during his 60 Minutes interview broadcast this evening, that: “he is doing a terrific job.”

Uh oh . . .

Here was the exchange between CBS’ Steve Croft and the president.

STEVE CROFT: You’re Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner has been under a lot of pressure this week. And there have been people in Congress calling for his head. Have their been discussions in the White House about replacing him?

BARACK OBAMA: No.

CROFT: Has he volunteered to, or come to you and said do you think I should step down?

OBAMA: No. And he shouldn’t. And if he were to come to me, I’d say, sorry buddy, you’ve still got the job. But look, he’s got a lot of stuff on his plate and he his doing a terrific job. And I take responsibility for not having given him as much help as he needs.

Let’s review: Pres. Obama has called the AIG bonuses an “outrage“.  But it’s been reported that the only reason that the bonuses happened is that Geithner instructed Sen. Chris Dodd to insert a legislative provision permitting them.

Whereas in the case of Katrina, Mayor Nagin and Governor Blanco bore much of the blame, in this case it is Geithner alone who apparently pushed to make the AIG bonuses, the ones that PBO has called an “outrage,” legal.  That’s what the president calls a “terrific job”?