U.S. Army Captain Michael Kelvington, commander of the Battle company, 1-508 Parachute Infantry battalion, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division, bows next to remains of Gulam Dostager, a member of Afghan Local Police who was killed in the blast of an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) during the joint Tor Janda (Black Flag in Pashtu) operation, in Zahri district of Kandahar province, southern Afghanistan May 25, 2012.  REUTERS/Shamil Zhumatov  (AFGHANISTAN - Tags: MILITARY CIVIL UNREST CONFLICT TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY)

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Members of the U.S. Navy Blue Angels fly over the World Trade Center in lower Manhattan as part of the 25th annual Fleet Week celebration in New York, May 23, 2012.  REUTERS/Eduardo Munoz (UNITED STATES - Tags: MILITARY ANNIVERSARY TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY)

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Republican leader predicts Bernanke confirmation

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WASHINGTON | Wed Jan 20, 2010 12:09pm EST

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S. Senate Republican leader said on Wednesday he expects Ben Bernanke to win Senate confirmation to a second term as chairman of the Federal Reserve with bipartisan support.

"I think he has a lot of support among Democrats and enough among Republicans that he will get the requisite number of votes," Senator John Thune, the chamber's fourth-ranking Republican, told Reuters in a hallway interview on Capitol Hill.

While Bernanke has plenty of supporters, he also has a number of critics, Democrats and Republicans.

Yet Thune indicated that he expects Bernanke to hit the needed 60 votes in the 100-member Senate to clear the way for confirmation.

Democrats who control the chamber have said that they would like to confirm Bernanke as soon as possible, and that a vote could be held as early as Friday, but that no final decision on timing has been made.

Bernanke'Bernanke'sd first four-year term expires on January 31.

(Reporting by Thomas Ferraro; Editing by Andrew Hay)

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