Just when we thought Office of Management and Budget Director Peter Orszag was the Obama administration’s most chic geek — Vogue magazine profiles Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner.
For the magazine’s March issue, Geithner poses in his office (an “intimidatingly ornate room worthy of a Hogwarts headmaster,” writer Rebecca Johnson pens) and chats about the financial meltdown. Some of the juiciest facts about Geithner, who is described in the article as “half-John F. Kennedy, half-Lyle Lovett,” are that he cooks barefoot and sports an off-the-rack Brooks Brothers suit. He also said he was tempted by an offer to run Citibank.
The Cabinet member sometimes forgets he’s famous, at one point dismissing plans to eat at a popular restaurant because he didn’t think his party could get a table.
And then there’s that whole tax debacle. At fault: Geithner said he tried doing his taxes using TurboTax. “It may be hubris to think you’re smart enough to do your own taxes, but it’s not criminal,” Vogue’s Johnson argued in the sympathetic profile.
