By Yael T. Abouhalkah, Kansas City Star Editorial Page columnist

Plenty of Americans are angry at the tax-preparation mistakes made by Treasury nominee Tim Geithner.

It's rather flip but ... so what? The U.S. Senate better confirm him today as Treasury Secretary or the economy could tank further.

Wall Street hates uncertainty, and the Obama administration right now doesn't have a permanent person in charge of its financial policies during the country's greatest economic meltdown in 70 years.

Sure, Geithner's tax-related mistakes looked amateurish. You'd think a guy as smart as Geithner would have known what taxes he owed -- and been doubly vigilant in paying them, if only to provide a good example for others.

But he didn't do that, and he admitted last week that mistakes had been made.

More notably, Geithner last week said he was ready to push ahead with fixing the financial sector's problems, while protecting U.S. tax dollars during the current bailout mania in Washington.

That's a potential recipe for success in turning around the country's financial problem.

Now the full Senate needs to move ahead and confirm Geithner, so he can get on with rescuing the economy. Or at least trying his best to do so.