Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner on Sunday blasted Mitt Romney for saying on the campaign trail that majority of jobs lost under the Obama administration are among women, calling the Republican presidential candidate’s argument a “ridiculous way” of looking at the country’s economic challenges. 
 
 “It’s a ridiculous way to look at the problem. It’s a political moment. You’re going to see a a lot of politicians choose to campaign in fiction, but we have to campaign in fact,” Geithner said on ABC’s “This Week.” “This crisis was a very damaging crisis, hurt everybody, and it began in early 2008 and a lot of the early job losses in 2008 affected men because they affected construction and manufacturing.” 
 
 Pressed by host George Stephanopoulos on whether the Romney’s argument that 92.3 percent of jobs lost under President Barack Obama have been among females, Geithner said, “It’s a ridiculous argument. It’s been largely debunked this week by people who have looked at it.” 
 
 Read more about: President Barack Obama, Economy, Mitt Romney, Women, Jobs, Timothy Geithner ||||| Appearing on NBC's "Meet the Press" Sunday morning, Rep. Michele Bachmann said she is “seriously looking into” endorsing presidential candidate Mitt Romney. The remarks are the closest the former GOP presidential candidate and Minnesota congresswoman has come to making an endorsement since dropping out of the race on Jan. 4. 
 
 Citing the decision by Romney’s chief rival – former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum – to suspend his campaign last Tuesday, Bachmann said there is a “uniting and pulling together around our eventual nominee.” 
 
 “I have said that I want my voice to be one of uniting our party, the independents, the main stream, the conservatives, evangelicals, the tea party movement,” Bachmann continued, adding, “I’m waiting for our party to come together and help in that process.” 
 
 Bachmann’s ecumenical view was not as pronounced during her own run for the GOP nomination, which was marked by frequent shots at Romney over the health care program he launched in Massachusetts in 2006. 
 
 Sunday morning, jousting with New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, Bachmann called Romney “smart” on job creation. 
 
 “Mitt Romney also understands how to turn around companies," she said. "The United States government needs to have a turnaround person who knows how to be successful." 
 
 Underlying the back-and-forth was the controversy that stoked hours of cable news coverage this week, when a Democratic strategist suggested that Romney’s wife, Ann, was unqualified to advise her husband on the economic struggles facing women because she had “never worked a day in her life.” 
 
 Bachmann called the remarks by the strategist, Hilary Rosen, “shocking and insulting.” 
 
 “When 92-percent of the people under Barack Obama’s failed economic policies are women who’ve lost jobs, that’s an unbelievably shocking number,” Bachmann added, reviving a statistic Romney himself used last week, which prompted a slew of fact check pieces. 
 
 (The statistic also came under fire minutes earlier on the broadcast, during an interview with Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, who called it “ridiculous and deeply misleading.”) 
 
 Facts, figures, and controversies aside, the exchange this morning seemed to underscore the degree to which both Republicans and Democrats view women’s votes as crucial in the upcoming general election. 
 
 “This election is not going to be about Ann Romney or Hillary’s remarks,” Gillibrand said. “What this election is going to be about is which candidate fights for America’s women.” 
 
 Bachmann didn't immediately respond but when she did, she said, "One thing that women are saying is that Mitt Romney is an extremely smart guy. He's been successful in creating jobs in the private economy, and that's something that Barack Obama has not been able to do." ||||| Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) on Sunday predicted that the Secret Service scandal that rocked President Barack Obama’s trip to Colombia probably wasn’t the first of its kind. 
 
 “The investigation will not be about the 11 to 20 or more involved, it will be about how has this happened,and how often has this happened before,” Issa said on CBS’s “Face the Nation.” “Things like this don’t happen once.” 
 
 Issa, who chairs the House Oversight and Government Committee, also noted that he believes the number of agents involved in the controversy may be higher than what is currently being reported, while dismissing the claim that Obama was never in danger during his trip abroad. 
 
 “In this particular case, the president may not have been in danger. But that begs the question -- what happens if somebody six months ago six years ago became the victim of their own misconduct and is now being blackmailed?” he said. “The question is, is the whole organization in need of some soul searching, some changes before the president the vice president, members of the Cabinet are in danger?” 
 
 Eleven Secret Service personnel who were in Colombia for Obama’s trip there were relieved of their duties after allegations of misconduct. Soon after, five military members were also reported as having been a part of the scandal involving local prostitutes. 
 
 Read more about: President Barack Obama, Secret Service, Darrell Issa ||||| Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) attacked Hilary Rosen on Sunday for her remarks that Ann Romney has "never worked a day in her life" -- as she defended Mitt Romney from attacks on his record. 
 
 "I thought it was shocking and insulting," Bachmann said on NBC's "Meet the Press." "I think women are going to be very upset." 
 
 Appearing on the same show, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), noted that the Democratic strategist apologized for her remarks, but said that they were "wrong and they were inappropriate." 
 
 Bachmann and Gillibrand then engaged in a sharp exchange over Romney and President Barack Obama and their party's respective records affecting women, growing particularly tense over the issue of contraception. 
 
 Asked if she were throwing her support behind Romney, Bachmann, a one-time presidential candidate, said: "I'm very seriously looking" at endorsing him. She added that she's seeing a "uniting and a pulling together around our eventual nominee." 
 
 "I want to unite our party," she said. 
 
 Read more about: Hilary Rosen, Michele Bachmann, Ann Romney
– Tim Geithner today summed up Mitt Romney's contention that women had lost the majority of jobs in the recession: "Ridiculous," the Treasury secretary told This Week. "It’s a political moment. You’re going to see a a lot of politicians choose to campaign in fiction, but we have to campaign in fact." Pressed further, Geithner said the statement had "been largely debunked." "The crisis was a very damaging crisis, hurt everybody, and a lot of the early job losses in 2008 affected men because they affected construction and manufacturing." More from your Sunday morning dial, as per Politico: Darrell Issa on the Secret Service prostitution scandal: “The investigation will not be about the 11 to 20 or more involved, it will be about how has this happened, and how often. Things like this don’t happen once.” And furthermore: "What happens if somebody six months ago [or] six years ago became the victim of their own misconduct and is now being blackmailed? Is the whole organization in need of some soul searching, some changes before the president, the vice president, members of the Cabinet are in danger?” John McCain on Syria: “For the United States to sit by and watch this wanton massacre is a betrayal of everything we stand for and we believe in." The US needs to "lead for a change. Not lead from behind, but lead from in front. We need to get a sanctuary for the Free Syrian Army, we need to get them supplies, we need to get them weapons. It’s not a fair fight.” Reince Priebus on the Buffett Rule: It's "one single tiny alteration" that amounts to nothing more than "a shiny little object. If you add up every dollar of revenue that this little rule will put into place, it would add up to paying for 11 hours of the federal government." Michele Bachmann on Hilary Rosen's comments: "I thought it was shocking and insulting. I think women are going to be very upset." Bachmann on Romney: "I'm very seriously looking" at endorsing him. "I want to unite our party."