Federal Reserve Bank defends QE2.  by Sewell Chan

The Republicans who signed the letter were the Senate minority leader, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky; Senator Jon Kyl of Arizona; Representative John A. Boehner of Ohio, who is in line to become the House speaker in January; and Representative Eric Cantor of Virginia, the No. 2 House Republican. They emphasized that the Fed should be insulated from political pressure but also said the central bank "should be open to receiving input and data from a wide range of sources."

However, the letter was more moderate in tone than recent complaints voiced by other Republican critics, like Representatives Mike Pence of Indiana, the chairman of the House Republican Conference, and Kevin Brady of Texas, who is in line to lead a subcommittee on trade.

By contrast, in the Fed’s corner on Wednesday was Thomas J. Donohue, president of the United States Chamber of Commerce, which poured money into the midterm campaigns to defeat Democrats.

"The Fed has over many, many, many years been particularly helpful to this government and to this country in dealing with financial crises, and by the way, they always make money on it," Mr. Donohue told reporters, referring to the fact that the Fed each year turns over to the government the profit it makes as a byproduct of its investments. "We’re hopeful that the Fed’s judgments turn out to be very positive for job creation and economic expansion."

Mr. Donohue suggested that some of the criticism of Mr. Bernanke had gone too far, praising Mr. Bernanke as a scholar of the Depression and saying, "We must maintain the independence of the Fed and be very, very careful not to louse that up on Capitol Hill:"