Yesterday, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had lunch with Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner, and China was on the agenda.

I’m hearing that Obama-ites, including some at State, are grumbling about Geithner’s statement in his confirmation hearing accusing China of manipulating its currency. There’s not much dispute that China is manipulating its currency, but the blunt, confrontational tone spurred charges of China-bashing and protectionism, fears of a stock slide, and concerns that the statement could trigger a trade war.

If one wants to take a tougher line with the Chinese, one would want to do so carefully and deliberately; Geithner’s salvo, apparently, wasn’t part of the plan. Geithner prepared his testimony himself, but every nominee has handlers from the administration–and apparently neither he nor his helpers from Team Obama saw the potential diplomatic fallout from the statement.

Obama press secretary Robert Gibbs was left insisting that Geithner wasn’t spelling out policy, but was merely repeating what the president had said on the campaign trail.

Senators were urged to overlook Geithner’s unpaid-tax issues because he was allegedly the best man, the smartest, most astute, shrewdest possible choice to head Treasury in a time of economic crisis. But apparently he didn’t recognize the diplomatic brouhaha his comments would start, or that campaign-trail rhetoric can have a much bigger impact when it shows up in testimony at a confirmation hearing.