Jon Stewart: Funny man. Grassroots organizer. Occasional Sesame Street pedagogue. Secret puppetmaster of the U.S. economy?

We can't say yes and we can't say no, although the absence of evidence is not the evidence of absence, if you get our drift. But while we're waiting on the fire, here's some smoke: back in April, Secretary of the Treasury Tim Geithner held a 90-minute, off-the-record meeting with Stewart, according to Bloomberg. The report is based on Geithner's appointments calendar, which was just updated through August, and shows that Geithner met with Stewart between 12:30 and 2:00 p.m. on April 2. "Jon Stewart is influential in America," Treasury spokesman Steve Adamske told Bloomberg in an e-mail, "so we took the opportunity for the two to meet and to discuss the economy."

Sadly, the link to Geithner's calendar doesn't appear to be working at the moment, but Doug Powers at Michelle Malkin's blog has a screengrab. "This can't be a coincidence," Powers adds, "because especially since that meeting, the management of the Treasury has been nothing short of hilarious." Right-leaning blogger Sister Toldjah chimes in: "What do you expect from an administration who is headed by a man who consulted with George Clooney about foreign policy as a candidate for President? Not only that, but this is the same administration that looked to director James Cameron for solutions to the oil spill crisis."

Meanwhile, Joe Weisenthal at Business Insider declares that "this basically ends any debate about whether Stewart is a comedian or a newsman" (to which Wonkette's Riley Waggaman rejoins, "Stewart wants to be 'well-informed' about issues that he talks about on his teevee show, therefore: definitely not a newsman").

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