Obama Car Czar Abdicates After Brief Tenure, WaPo Places Story on Page A11

Steven Rattner, a former New York Times reporter whose short tenure as Obama's so-called car czar "came under a cloud in April when details of alleged influence-peddling surfaced," announced his resignation yesterday, the Washington Post's Peter Whoriskey and Tomoeh Murakami Tse reported today.

Yet despite President Obama's penchant for naming numerous policy czars, news of the resignation was shuffled off to page A11 rather than trumpeted on the front page. Curiously, the Post did find space below the fold on page A1 for a story that basically boils down to how the stress of being U.S. Attorney General is wearing on Eric Holder.

What's more, the Rattner story itself is front-loaded with praise for Rattner from Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner and Obama-approved GM chief Fritz Henderson, while less savory details about the influence-peddling investigation were buried towards the end of the 18-paragraph article.

But have no fear, we may not have heard the last from Rattner. As Whoriskey and Tse note at the end of their July 14 article:

A person close to Rattner who spoke on the condition of anonymity said that he would not be returning to Quadrangle. Rattner has long held political ambitions, and Treasury's statement yesterday left the door open for his return to the public sector.

"I hope that he takes another opportunity to bring his unique skills to government service in the future," Geithner said.