"Obama reportedly to name Warren special adviser; Plan would avoid fraught Senate process" by Donovan Slack, Globe Staff | September 16, 2010
WASHINGTON — President Obama plans to appoint Harvard law professor Elizabeth Warren to a Treasury Department advisory post that will allow her to help create the consumer protection bureau, a key component of the new financial regulatory overhaul, without subjecting her to an arduous Senate confirmation process, according to a Democratic official.
Related: Obama Gets Warning on Warren
Warren will be an assistant to the president and a special adviser to Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner, said the official, who was briefed on the president’s plans but spoke on condition of anonymity because the official announcement has not been made. She will report directly to the president and Geithner and lead the administration’s work on the bureau.
Great:
"Geithner has opposed Warren’s nomination"
They should work well together.
Many consumer groups and Democrats have been pressuring Obama to nominate Warren to be the director of the bureau, a five-year term that requires Senate confirmation. Republicans, who have enough votes in the Senate to filibuster any nomination, have been aggressive in challenging Obama’s picks. Many have languished for months without a full Senate vote.
And the one time we wanted a filibuster -- health care -- it was ignored.
By appointing her to an advisory post, the White House avoids what had been expected to be a particularly intense proceeding, given Warren’s reputation as an anti-Wall Street reformer. It is unclear whether the appointment would preclude her eventual nomination to the director’s post.
Have you ever seen anyone described as "pro-Wall Street" in the paper?
I guess you wouldn't have to since that is who the agenda-pushing papers represent.
“Given the filibuster, it would have been tough’’ to get Warren confirmed, Representative Barney Frank said in an interview last night. “Senate Republicans have been very resistant and I have to say, sadly, it’s not certain every Democrat would vote for her either.’’
What is with your party anyway, Barn?
Between this and the Bush tax cuts position it makes you wonder why we don't just elect Repuglicans.
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“Hiring her as a White House staffer is likely to please no one: not the liberals who want her running the show, not the president who has yet to rally that liberal base, and not the Street, which is still uncertain about who will be writing the rules of the road,’’ said a senior GOP aide who declined to be identified by name. “This president goes to great lengths to avoid Senate oversight of his nominees, but in this case it’s really a lose-lose.’’
Can the political class be any more out of touch with the people?
The fact is the public -- without really knowing much about her -- want her in the job!
I mean, I DO and you can read the bent of this blog for yourself. If I AM FOR HER than the American people are as well!!
Related: Wall Street Writing Washington Regulations
Oh, the little GOP puke is a LIAR, too?
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Plain-spoken and direct, Warren has lambasted financial institutions for creating systems of lending to consumers that bury hidden fees and penalties in fine print and obscure terms....
They act much like a newspaper!
And you can see why the people might really like her, huh?
Warren has been serving as chairwoman of the congressional group that oversees how money for the 2008 bank bailouts was spent. In that capacity, she has occasionally clashed with Geithner over his department’s use of Troubled Asset Relief Program money and her committee’s findings.
Even she didn't know where they tossed the tax loot.
Earlier this year, Geithner called Warren “an incredibly capable, effective advocate for reform’’ and said she was “way ahead of her time’’ in sounding the alarms about the housing crisis.
Yeah, you would hardly know he opposes her nomination.
Obama has long been a friend and supporter of Warren, but he signaled in a news conference last week that he was keenly aware of the potential pitfalls of nominating a polarizing figure in the midst of a heated election year....
Polarizing for who?
Certainly not the American people they allegedly serve.
Some banking industry representatives have said that Warren’s consumer advocacy might impair her ability to lead the new bureau.
Sickening creatures of pure slime, aren't they?
See who the corporate media of AmeriKa REALLY REPRESENTS?
Having her work at Treasury could alleviate concerns by the financial industry about how she might use the agency’s wide authority....
What about your concerns over the policies of thieving banks, Americans?
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All inside baseball you are not supposed to care about, right?
"Warren is appointed Treasury adviser; Will oversee the creation of consumer agency" by Brady Dennis and Scott Wilson, Washington Post | September 18, 2010
WASHINGTON — In naming Elizabeth Warren yesterday to set up a new consumer protection agency, President Obama swiftly delighted the liberal base of his party after months of disenchantment.
And not just them.
Warren, 61, a Harvard law professor with a long track record of consumer advocacy, will oversee all aspects of the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection. Technically, Warren will be an adviser, a role that does not require Senate confirmation — a maneuver that outraged Republicans, who accused Obama of creating a “czar’’ position without congressional oversight.
But senior administration officials appeared unconcerned about angering an opposition party likely to oppose any nominee. If anything, the White House embraced the chance to strike a populist tone.
If they really meant it that would be one thing.
In naming her to the post during yesterday’s Rose Garden event, Obama called Warren, a janitor’s daughter from Oklahoma, “one of the country’s fiercest advocates for the middle class.
We call them custodial engineers around here.
“She has seen financial struggles and foreclosures affect her own family,’’ he said. Obama was joined by Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and senior adviser Valerie Jarrett, who helped shepherd through the appointment over the concerns of other senior officials.
Yeah, Geithner helped her now, sigh.
The rifts within the administration, as described by advisers, reflected a wider split over Warren: A polarizing figure, she is adored by consumer groups and liberal lawmakers who lobbied hard for her appointment, but she is disliked by many banking groups and conservatives on Capitol Hill who expressed fear that she will clamp down unfairly on the financial industry and crimp access to credit.
Of course, some Democrat$ are against her, too.
Don't you love it when the WaPo only gives you a lie as one side of the story?
And the credit has already been shut off -- not that anyone wants it.
Warren will oversee every element of the bureau’s creation, from recruiting staff to designing key policy initiatives. She also will play a central role in helping to identify a permanent director for the bureau, Obama said.
Her selection as the bureau’s chief architect, if not its leader, fits seamlessly into the broader appeal that Obama is making to voters this midterm election season — that only the Democrats are helping the economically beleaguered middle class.
I'm so sick of false debates.
If you helped the middle class so much why is it shrinking and disappearing, Democrats?
It also helps calm critics on Obama’s left who have complained that some of the president’s senior economic advisers favor the interests of Wall Street and big business over the middle class....
And it isn't only people on the "left" that feel that way about his policies -- or the blatant political posturing and pandering that comes with it.
The highly anticipated appointment has been two months in the making, and its arrival did little to stem the controversy surrounding the critical position. Obama’s decision to appoint Warren to a dual role as assistant to the president and special adviser to the Treasury secretary — giving her primary responsibility for shaping the bureau while avoiding a potentially vicious confirmation battle — only stoked the clamor surrounding the appointment....
What clamor and where, MSM?
Your little circles of elites?
"Alliance is key to consumer agency; Geithner, Warren must join forces" by Ian Katz, Bloomberg News | September 21, 2010
WASHINGTON — Elizabeth Warren, appointed last week to help set up a new consumer financial-protection agency, spent a slice of the past two years critiquing Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner. Now, he will oversee her.
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, a watchdog for products from credit cards to mortgages, may be shaped as much by Warren’s ability to work with Geithner as by the financial firms and industry critics trying to steer its agenda....
Warren’s criticism of firms including Citigroup Inc. and American International Group Inc. led business groups and Republican lawmakers to question whether the law professor, who has never run a government agency or large company, could be an unbiased leader of the consumer bureau....
Of course, that doesn't apply to all the Wall Street lackeys that staff the executive's economic office and Congress.
Warren said in July the bailout program “worked really well for the Wall Street banks, but it didn’t work well for the rest of the banks in the system.’’
Or the American people that didn't want it in the first place because we knew what they were.
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At a June hearing, she and Geithner, 49, clashed over the government’s $50 billion Home Affordable Modification Program and how to measure whether it is helping enough homeowners.
“What is the metric for success here?’’ Warren asked. “Is it 120,000 families saved over 15 months at a time when 186,000 are posted for new defaults and foreclosures every month?’’
That must be why the administration's efforts failed (not that they were every really working for you).
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