If you're looking for signs of strong leadership and integrity as this economic crisis worsens, good luck.

You won't find it in Washington or in the dens of Wall Street.

Tim Geithner, the former head of the Federal Reserve Bank, can't file his own taxes correctly, but gets appointed to secretary of treasury. Former Senator Tom Daschle hasn't bothered to report some of his income for the last three years and has asked President Obama to withdraw his name for health secretary.

This comes as we learn that the financial elite handed out billions in bonuses just weeks after the bailout.

Talk about a disconnection from reality.

New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd recently wrote about the need for Wall Street's high rollers to disgorge. And Frank Rich rightly pointed out that the economy is falling apart faster than Washington can act.

With almost daily announcements of thousands of job cuts, some members of Congress were actually arguing against moving too quickly.

Amidst all of this comes the stimulus package with Republican hacks standing in front of TV cameras pushing for tax cuts and less regulation. It's as if they just stepped out of a coma.

They criticized the banks for lending to unqualified borrowers. Now with unemployment sweeping the nation, they're asking why banks aren't lending.

Democrats haven't done any better. After padding the package with benefits spending, they sent Speaker Pelosi and Senator Reid out to defend it - two people who would have trouble explaining why you should cover your mouth when coughing.

Somehow Obama needs to pass a stimulus package that gets to the business of crafting a new economy. Call it a green economy if you want, but he needs to pass a bill that does more than send cash to the states to fix roads and bridges.

This is no ordinary recession.

Pulling out from underneath it, considering the country's debt obligations, will require a new generation of industries capable of creating millions of jobs.

That's going to require innovation and cooperation in Washington.

Now that would be change we can believe in.