Count Senator Inhofe as a “solid no” when it comes to the question of Bernanke’s confirmation. From his tone, it should be safe to assume that he’s a no on the cloture vote that will be required to move Bernanke to the floor (given the holds on his nomination), but I’ll follow up on that to be absolutely certain the next time I see the Senator.

Senator Bennett think his constituents believe the financial crisis is one of liquidity. For whatever reason, Senators are unwilling to say what virtually everyone knows is true: our “too big to fail” institutions are insolvent. Their liabilities exceed their assets. They jumped in with both feet and fueled the real estate bubble; now that it has burst, they are left with a whole lotta devalued paper on their hands. The Fed, Treasury and banks (with the tacit endorsement of the House, Senate and White House) are moving every way they can to recapitalize banks as quickly as possible. Of course, their emergency triage comes at the expense of poor suckers like you, me and the rest of Main Street. And ultimately, the choices being made today are likely to increase the long-term pain for all of us.

But shhh… don’t say anything. The entire scheme rests on the assumption that not too many people will point their fingers and say, “Hey – teh emperor wears no clothes!”

And that’s why Senator Bennett pretends this is all about liquidity.