UNPRECEDENTED: Bernanke to Spend Part of FOMC Meeting Day Trying to Save His Job

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke gained more support from U.S. senators for a second term, but it is clearly not enough. He is preparing to work around a two-day FOMC policy meeting that starts today to visit more senators, reports Bloomberg.

Democrats including Missouri’s Claire McCaskill and Maryland’s Barbara Mikulski were among the senators who said yesterday they would vote for the 56-year-old Fed chief or were leaning in his favor, along with Utah Republican Robert Bennett.

However, Republicans Tom Coburn of Oklahoma and Florida’s George LeMieux said they would decide after meeting with Bernanke this week.

Senate Majority Whip Richard Durbin is telling Bernanke he needs to continue meeting with senators. Bloomberg reports Durbon as saying:

I encouraged Chairman Bernanke to meet with as many members as possible. He has an Open Market Committee meeting this week that he said he can’t miss and I said, ‘Well, I sure don’t want the economy to come down, that’s not good for either one of us.’ So he’s going to try to balance that but spend as much time on the Hill as he can.

This is even physically challenging. The Fed where the FOMC meetings are held is on the opposite end of central D.C. from the Capitol.