Sunday, July 24, 2011

Warren Not a Brown-Noser

That's why she is being exiled from Washington.

"Obama bypassing Warren for consumer bureau, officials say; Harvard professor faced opposition from the GOP" July 16, 2011|Bloomberg News

WASHINGTON - President Obama has chosen a candidate other than Elizabeth Warren as director of the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, according to a person briefed on the matter. 

Related: The Wonder Woman of Wall Street

The president’s choice already works at the consumer agency, the person said yesterday. Obama may make the nomination as soon as next week, another person briefed on the administration’s plans said.
The people, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the process is not public, did not give the name of the choice.

Last fall, Obama appointed Warren, a Harvard law professor, to set up the consumer bureau until a director was named.  

Related: Obama Ignores Warning

Warren, one of the nation’s leading experts on the effect of bankruptcy on American families, had been the architect of the bureau, one of the cornerstones of the Dodd-Frank package of Wall Street regulations following the 2008 credit meltdown.

The consumer bureau, which is to begin formal operations Thursday, was established to fill a gap in oversight of products whose abuse contributed to the crisis, including mortgages and credit cards.

Warren also served as head of the congressional watchdog panel overseeing the TARP bank bailout.

Known for a plain-spoken bluntness and relentless advocacy for consumers, Warren has become a polarizing figure, showered with accolades from groups supporting working-class families and criticism from Republicans and some Wall Street bankers. 

That's not very polarizing. She's with 90% of us. 

She has been vigorously campaigning to keep the GOP-controlled House from diluting the bureau’s powers, including talking with community bankers in every state and meeting with hundreds of business and consumer representatives. Preparing for the agency’s opening, she supervised the hiring of more than 300 people.

The bureau, however, cannot write rules to govern consumer finance until a director is nominated and confirmed in the Senate.

In May, 44 Republican senators announced they would not vote to approve any candidate to run the bureau unless its management structure is changed, with some calling for a five-person commission to replace the director position.

Warren has told The New York Times that opponents are trying to stick “a knife in the ribs of the agency.’’

“The fight has now shifted. It didn’t stop, it just moved from being a fight out in the headlines, out in the middle of the street, to a fight in the back alleys,’’ she said.

Consumer bureau spokeswoman Jen Howard declined to comment on whether Warren would be bypassed. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Raj Date, a top deputy to Warren at the consumer bureau, was on a short list of candidates to become director, a person briefed on the process said last month.

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"Warren bypassed for consumer agency; Obama picks ex-AG of Ohio to lead bureau" July 18, 2011|By Jim Kuhnhenn, Associated Press

WASHINGTON - President Obama intends to nominate Richard Cordray, Ohio’s former attorney general, to lead a new consumer protection agency that was a central feature of a law that overhauled financial regulations.

Obama plans to announce the nomination formally today, the White House said in a statement yesterday. Republicans immediately threatened to block his Senate confirmation.

In choosing Cordray to head the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Obama bypassed Elizabeth Warren, the Harvard Law School professor who developed the idea for the new agency and was appointed by Obama last fall to set it up....

The financial industry lined up against Warren. Bankers said a Warren-run agency would restrict new products just when companies seek to replace profits squeezed by the financial rules.

In other words, she wouldn't allow you to be ripped off by the vampire-like parasites.

But Senator Richard Shelby of Alabama, the top Republican on the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs, said Republicans would block Cordray as well unless Obama seeks changes in the agency.

“Until President Obama addresses our concerns by supporting a few reasonable structural changes, we will not confirm anyone to lead it,’’ Shelby said. “No accountability, no confirmation.’’

Cordray’s elevation from enforcement chief to director raises a separate concern for the industry: Some fear the agency will launch early enforcement actions designed to raise its public profile. Treasury officials said that’s unlikely....

Consumer advocate and one-time presidential candidate Ralph Nader called bypassing Warren “an act of political cowardliness by President Obama.’’

“Elizabeth Warren apparently is just too good, too smart, too able to arouse the just concerns of millions of American families over the need to put the law-and-order wood to the corporate criminals, defrauders, and reckless speculators,’’ Nader said....

Is Ralph's new book really saying only the rich can save us?

Looks like it is Ron Paul for president and that's all then.

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And Warren might be sticking her nose up someone's ass after all:

"Leaving D.C., Warren ponders run for Senate" July 19, 2011|By Noah Bierman, Globe Staff

Elizabeth Warren, a Harvard Law School professor whose consumer protection work has made her a favorite among liberal activists, has said little about whether she plans to run for Senate. And her delay in making a decision has left some party operatives anxious, questioning whether she has the passion for a backbreaking campaign....  

Why would anyone want to enter that cesspool?

She is clearly on the GOP radar. Yesterday, the National Republican Senatorial Committee sent out a news release attempting to undermine her credentials as a true Red Sox fan, pointing out she grew up in Oklahoma.  

As if THAT is going to matter as I consider my decision for senator. 

You elite stinks really think we are all shit-headed saps out here, huh? We'll see what's in your skull when the French  blade separates yours from your neck, shitter. 

Brian Walsh, communications director for the committee, previewed the Republican campaign against her in an interview, in which he tried to paint Warren as a product of national Democrats and a creature of the ivory tower 

Did you read about her wonderful roots?

“It’s unclear whether Massachusetts natives believe an Oklahoma native and professor at Harvard best represents their views and values,’’ he said. “If she does get in, it’s clear the Democrats are going to have a very divisive primary on their hands.’’

Or they will all get behind her.

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She clashed privately with Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner....   

Then she will HAVE MY VOTE! 

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Also see: Warren’s US Senate campaign in debt

Already?

Khazei leads potential Brown challengers in fund-raising

Related

Who Bought Brown's Election?

The U.S. Senate's Chief Brownnoser to Israel

Brown's Nose Buried Deep 

He won't be losing his seat.  Not in the land of Massachusetts election machines. 

Update: Warren for Senate? No thanks