Elizabeth Warren Could Add Some Class To The U.S. Senate

This week Darrell Issa's inept and cartoonish committee tried, unsuccessfully, to terrorize Elizabeth Warren-- to the point where even Blue Dog Jim Cooper was so embarrassed and exasperated by his right-wing colleagues that he said "Some of us come here and we get so used to the food fight that we want it to continue. And you'll probably score brownie points if you make your partisan hit. You might even get on a better committee. Well, congratulations. You will not have solved a problem." The video above is of blatant corporate whore Dennis Ross from Florida who is pushing legislation to repeal the Dodd-Frank Act and prevent the regulation of the investment and banking industry. Short attention span, presumably.

The day after, someone in the White House-- presumably a Tiny Tim Geithner ally-- leaked to the media that Obama had decided to name someone other than Warren to head the consumer protection bureau that Wall Street and their allies are so scared of. Presumably he'll name either ex-banker Raj Date or Rich Cordray, neither of whom makes Wall Street banksters fear that they're criminal behavior is going to land them in prison cells.

The bureau’s director requires confirmation by the Senate. After 44 Republican senators announced in May that they wouldn’t vote to approve any candidate to run the bureau without changes in its structure, analysts said the White House might have to resort to a temporary appointment during a congressional recess. Sixty of the 100 senators are effectively required to vote for a nomination due to procedural rules.

In 1986 President Reagan nominated Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III to the US District Court for the Southern District of Alabama. When the Senate Judiciary Committee was confronted with incontrovertible evidence that Sessions is a dedicated and vicious racist and even a KKK "sympathizer" he was rejected as unfit for the judgeship and Reagan reluctantly withdrew the nomination. Alabama racists were outraged and Sessions' rejection led to him being elected Attorney General of the state and then to the U.S. Senate. He's the first Republican in history to be reelected to a Senate seat from Alabama.

Clearly Sessions was never going to vote to confirm Warren. And, in all likelihood, the Republicans would have been able to filibuster her nomination so that it would never have even been voted on. We'll never know for sure because Obama raised the white flag and wimped out-- depriving one of America's most gifted and dedicated civil servants with the opportunity to go before the people and make her case, an opportunity that could have done her as much good with the voters of Massachusetts and it did Sessions with the voters of Alabama 2 decades ago. And many in Massachusetts thinks she will be a candidate for the U.S. Senate, the only Democrat likely to beat Republican tight-rope walker Scott Brown.

From the lips of Washington’s top Democrats to the ears of Massachusetts party leaders, all systems are go for a US Senate run by Elizabeth Warren-- if she wants it... Warren is being touted as a Democratic star worthy of taking on Republican Senator Scott Brown. It’s a combination consolation prize and rescue mission.

“Elizabeth Warren is still in the running for the consumer protection job. I hope she gets that job,’’ said Massachusetts Democratic Party chairman John Walsh. But if it doesn’t come through, “I would love it if she were interested in joining the race. I would talk to her and encourage her in a heartbeat,’’ said Walsh, officially embracing the buzz that began with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Senator Patty Murray of Washington, who also chairs the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee.

John Kerry says he isn't endorsing anyone in the primary, even though another Warren, Setti, is a declared candidate and a former aide. The Wall Street Journal on the other hand, delighted to see her out of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, called for her, perhaps sardonically, to run for the Senate in a snide OpEd Thursday.

Harvard professor Elizabeth Warren has become a great liberal hero as the architect of the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and now she may be contemplating a run for the Senate in Massachusetts. Our advice: Go for it... By running for the Senate, the Harvard law professor could test her views against popular opinion. It's true she'd have to take on Republican Scott Brown, and a March survey showed he would beat her by 17 percentage points. But 59% said they hadn't heard of Mrs. Warren, and a famously liberal state like Massachusetts would surely give her a hearing. Step out of the shadows, professor, and embrace a little democratic legitimacy.

UPDATE: Obama Picks Cordray To Head The CFPB

Obama will announce tomorrow that Cordray, the former Attorney General of Ohio, is his pick for the top job at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. He's currently the director of enforcement for the bureau.

By picking Cordray, Obama hopes to avoid a bruising Senate confirmation battle that would have occurred had he selected Elizabeth Warren, the Harvard law professor who came up with the idea and ultimately helped to set up the agency.

"Richard Cordray has spent his career advocating for middle class families, from his tenure as Ohio's Attorney General, to his most recent role as heading up the enforcement division at the (bureau) and looking out for ordinary people in our financial system," Obama said.

Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, called the selection of Cordray a "great move. There's no question of Rich's qualifications."

He predicted the Senate will likely confirm Cordray for the post "unless they get to be hyper-partisan. My only fear is Republicans don't think we should have consumer protection rules."

The Cordray selection places pressure on Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, who has voiced objections about some of the powers of a new agency. Brown said, "I fully expect Rob Portman to support Rich Cordray."

Obama acknowledged Warren's leadership in a statement announcing Cordray's nomination, thanking Warren "not only for her extraordinary work standing up the new agency over the past year, but also for her many years of impassioned leadership, and her fierce defense of a simple idea: ordinary people deserve to be treated fairly and honestly in their financial dealings.

"This agency was Elizabeth's idea, and through sheer force of will, intelligence, and a bottomless well of energy, she has made, and will continue to make, a profound and positive difference for our country," he said.

Warren, who hand-picked Cordray to serve in the agency shortly after his loss in last November's elections, expressed support for his selection.

"Rich has always had my strong support because he is tough and he is smart-and that's exactly the combination this new agency needs," she said. "He was one of the first senior leaders I recruited for the agency, and his work and commitment have made it clear that he will make a stellar director."

UPDATE II: Elizabeth Warren's Statement

"Last year, when President Obama and Secretary Geithner asked me to help them stand up the consumer bureau, I enthusiastically accepted the position and got to work because I believe firmly that the CFPB can make the consumer finance markets work better for American families - eliminating fine print, making costs, benefits, and risk clearer, and holding those who break the law accountable. In the time since, we have been hard at work building an agency to do just that.
 
"Today, the President announced his intent to nominate Richard Cordray to serve as the first Director of the CFPB. Rich has a proven track record of fighting for families during his time as head of the CFPB enforcement division, as Attorney General of Ohio, and throughout his career. He was one of the first senior executives I recruited for the agency, and his hard work and deep commitment make it clear that he can make many important contributions in leading this agency. He will make a stellar director. I am very pleased for Rich and very pleased for the CFPB.
 
"In May, forty-four Republican Senators wrote a letter saying that they will block anyone from serving as CFPB Director. Many of them don't like either the agency or the ideas that led to its creation. They lost that fight last summer in a straight up vote, but they have said they will use a filibuster over nomination to undercut the agency and its effectiveness.
 
"I remain hopeful that those who want to cripple this consumer bureau will think again and remember that the financial crisis-- and the recession and job losses that it sparked-- began one lousy mortgage at a time. I also hope that when those Senators next go home, they ask their constituents how they feel about fine print, about signing contracts with terms that are incomprehensible, and about learning the true costs of a financial transaction only later when fees are piled on or interest rates are reset. I hope they will ask the people in their districts if they are opposed to an agency that is working to make prices clear or if they think budgets should be cut for an agency that is trying to make sure that trillion-dollar banks follow the law. I hope they will ask their constituents if they are opposed to the confirmation of someone who saved $2 billion for retirees, investors, and business owners as Ohio Attorney General and who has worked hard on the front lines fighting against fraudulent foreclosures and abusive lending practices.
 
"Partisanship may be the most important thing in Washington, but in the rest of the country, people expect their public servants to work together to learn from past regulatory failures and to put our energy into solving problems, not scoring political points. In visiting with people and business leaders across the country-- including community bankers and credit unions in all 50 states-- I see a real eagerness to move forward, to work together to repair a broken credit market. I hope that Republicans in the Senate take notice and stop their fight to preserve a regulatory system that failed us.
 
"Prior to the passage of the Dodd-Frank Act, the President and I fought side by side to make the new agency possible. And, if we need to, I know we will continue to fight side by side, to keep it strong and independent and to make sure it has the tools it needs to serve the American people."

She hasn't announced her Senate campaign yet.