Stan Collender writes:

It’s not at all clear, however, whether Bernanke realizes that the same political pressure that has brought fiscal policy to a standstill in Washington is very likely to be applied to the Fed if it decides to move forward. With Republican policymakers seeing economic hardship as the path to election glory this November, there is every reason to expect that the GOP will be equally as opposed to any actions taken by the Federal Reserve that would make the economy better, and that Republicans will openly and virulently criticize the Fed for even thinking about it. The criticism is likely to come both before any action is taken to try to stop it from happening and afterwards to make the Fed think twice about doing more. [Emphasis added.]

So what if a Republican congressional candidate endorsed the views recently expressed by Raghuram Rajan?

I am not advocating that the Fed raise rates to 2 percent overnight. That would be irresponsible. I am saying that as worries (largely about financial turmoil emanating from Europe) settle down and we return to expecting steady but slow growth, we should not wait for employment to come back substantially before we start the process of raising rates to a low normal. The Fed should, of course, give the markets a clear sense of the path to expect, and perhaps indicate it will pause after reaching the ”normal” low rate. If asked what a “normal” low rate is, I would say one candidate is zero real short term rates. With inflation between 1.5 to 2 percent, that would mean 1.5 percent to 2 percent nominal before the Fed pauses again.

One could see this as a legitimate difference of opinion. But Collender seems to believe that the real motivation behind supposed Republican concerns about inflation and asset bubbles is a desire to exacerbate unemployment.

Given that the Republican party is highly decentralized and indeed fractious, as evidenced by the recent defeat of an incumbent senator in a primary election in Alaska, one wonders how this message is coordinated and executed.