Promising both continuity and independence, Ben Bernanke, President Bush’s pick to head the Federal Reserve, on Tuesday began defining what sort of helmsman he’d be for the world’s largest economy.

The president’s chief economic adviser used his confirmation hearing before the Senate Banking Committee to signal that he’d stay the course set during Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan’s 18-year tenure, which will end Jan. 31. But Bernanke, 51, a distinguished former Princeton University economist, also made it clear that he would be his own man.

“I assure this committee that, if I am confirmed, I will be strictly independent of all political influences,” Bernanke said, stressing that the Fed’s independence is “essential to that institution’s ability to function effectively and achieve its mandated objectives.”