Here is today's New York Times take on Elizabeth Warren and her chances, and why we need her. Don't forget to email Obama, your Senators and Representative.
Washington Memo
Warren’s Candidacy Raises a Partisan Debate
By BINYAMIN APPELBAUM
Published: July 25, 2010
Elizabeth Warren last week won the endorsements of several dozen Congressional Democrats, two of the nation’s leading labor groups and her hometown newspaper, The Boston Globe.
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Manuel Balce Ceneta/Associated Press
Elizabeth Warren faces criticism about being too partisan.
One would be forgiven for thinking that the Harvard professor is running for elected office.
Instead, Ms. Warren’s supporters want President Obama to nominate her as the first head of a new consumer financial protection bureau created by the legislation he signed into law last week. They say that Ms. Warren, who conceived the idea and helped shepherd its passage into law, is the only acceptable choice to finish the project.
“It is essential to the bill and very, very important that Elizabeth Warren be appointed,” Representative Barney Frank, Democrat of Massachusetts and an architect of the law, said Friday on MSNBC.
There is little question that Ms. Warren has become a hero to liberals who see her as a scourge of the banking industry.
But the loud, insistent campaign — highly unusual for presidential appointments other than Supreme Court nominees or cabinet positions — also reflects deep anxiety that the work of overhauling financial regulation is shifting from Congress to agencies that are insulated from public pressure and will write and put into effect hundreds of new rules.
Ms. Warren’s supporters regard her as the best person to represent consumers during that process. But they also crave the symbolic value of her appointment, which almost certainly would cause a partisan confirmation battle, as an affirmation that the White House is committed to imposing significant new restrictions on the financial industry.
“A lot of us are terrified about what happens in rule-making,” said Stephen Lerner of the Service Employees International Union, which is pressing the administration to nominate Ms. Warren. “Symbolically, it does seem incredibly important to pick somebody who not only invented the idea, but someone who doesn’t claim to be a neutral.”
Bankers oppose her nomination for exactly that reason. Roger M. Beverage, head of the Oklahoma Bankers Association, said that Ms. Warren was widely respected in Oklahoma, where she was raised and is still remembered as a high school debate champion. But he said that his members did not believe she would understand the needs and concerns of community banks.
“Not that she’s not competent. Goodness gracious, I would never say that. She’s exceptionally bright. We just fear what she might come up with,” Mr. Beverage said. “She’s a partisan and she’s bull-headed and she’s opinionated. And she’s terrific. She’s a great advocate. We just respectfully disagree with her view of the world.”
Ms. Warren herself has not campaigned publicly for the nomination, though people who know her say that she would welcome it.
The debate over her candidacy threatens to sour the celebration of a law that the White House hoped would rally Democrats facing difficult midterm elections. The consumer bureau will be the popular face of the law, which also subjects more financial companies to federal oversight, extends regulation to activities including derivatives trading and creates a new council to detect risks to the financial system and broader economy.
So far, the administration has sought to walk a fine line, embracing Ms. Warren and her supporters while refraining from granting their demand. The White House has vetted Ms. Warren and at least two other candidates for the job, officials say.
“I have the highest regard for Elizabeth. We have not made decisions about who we’re going to appoint yet,” Mr. Obama said Friday on ABC’s “Good Morning America.”
Ms. Warren proposed the creation of a federal agency to protect consumers of financial products, in a 2007 article that said the government put more effort in protecting people who buy toaster ovens than people who borrow money to buy homes.
The idea resonated with Mr. Obama and his senior advisers, and it became a centerpiece of the administration’s proposal to overhaul financial regulation. The White House worked with Ms. Warren to flesh out the details, and it worked with her to win the support of Congress. But some administration officials are not sure that Ms. Warren is the best choice to run the new agency.
There is no doubt about her status as a symbol.
“She represents to a large part of the country — not just people caught up in the damage of the crisis, but people who view this system as being fundamentally broken — she represents one of the most compelling advocates for reform,” Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner said at a breakfast with reporters last week.
In an interview Sunday on ABC’s “This Week,” Mr. Geithner cited what he called Ms. Warren’s “enormous credibility” and said that, despite her criticism of the Treasury Department, he had no concerns about her possible appointment.
But others have expressed doubts about Ms. Warren’s qualifications, including some Senate Democrats whose votes would be required to confirm her nomination. Detractors say that Ms. Warren lacks management experience, and that she is too partisan to be an effective referee.
The other known candidates are both consumer advocates who have more experience in government: Michael S. Barr, an assistant Treasury secretary who played a central role in drafting the financial legislation, and Eugene I. Kimmelman, a former consumer advocate, now deputy assistant attorney general in the antitrust division of the Justice Department.
Even some admirers worry that a draining confirmation battle could weaken the new bureau during the critical period when its scope and powers are being defined by its early decisions.
Senator Christopher J. Dodd, Democrat of Connecticut and chairman of the banking committee, warned last week that it would be difficult to gather the 60 votes to confirm Ms. Warren.
But her supporters are spoiling for the fight.
With midterm elections fast approaching, they are itching for a public debate about consumer protection. There also is frustration among some liberals that the White House has in several instances chosen not to take up the issues that they consider most important.
Mr. Frank said that liberals would be justified in holding Mr. Obama accountable for this decision.
“We didn’t get a public option and other things we wanted. That wasn’t his fault,” said Mr. Frank, referring to the removal of a major provision from health care legislation. “The economic recovery bill, the stimulus, it wasn’t as big as it should have been. That wasn’t his fault. He couldn’t get the votes.
“With regard to appointing Elizabeth Warren, that’s his decision. No one can stop him from making it.”
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