WASHINGTON — President Obama nominated billionaire Chicago business exec Penny Pritzker — one of his earliest backers and a key fund-raiser — as commerce secretary yesterday.
“Today is her birthday,” he joked. “For your birthday present, you get to go through confirmation.”
But the Republican National Committee blasted Obama’s “subprime Cabinet” — a jab at a Pritzker-run financial firm’s repackaging of subprime loans.
Said to be worth nearly $2 billion, Pritzker helps oversee a real-estate and finance empire and sits on the board of Hyatt Hotels.
Her fund-raising efforts were key in getting Obama into the Senate in 2004, and she chaired the finance committee that brought in a record $745 million for his 2008 presidential campaign.
She helped run an S&L that went bust in 2001. The IRS sued her family over alleged offshore tax havens. The feds sought $53 million; the parties settled on $9.5 million.