Doing the Elizabeth Warren Shuffle

Posted on Sep 16, 2010

cop.senate.gov

Opinions are divided over the news that Elizabeth Warren, progressives’ pick to head the new consumer protection agency, will be appointed to get said agency off the ground but (in all likelihood) not be its first director.

The New York Times reports that Rep. Barney Frank is upbeat about the development as are others on the left, while some holdouts worry that it’s a way of neutralizing the best candidate for the job.

Ezra Klein writes that he’s suspicious of decisions that can be sold to both the lefty blogger and the conservative banker. But, Klein writes, letting Warren shape the agency while dodging a nasty confirmation fight and filibuster is probably a shrewd move.

It is troubling that, in addition to reporting to the president, Warren will be reporting at least nominally to Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, who steadfastly opposed her appointment to the agency.  —PZS

New York Times:

President Obama’s plan to have the legal scholar Elizabeth Warren oversee the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau without a confirmation vote in the Senate drew mixed reviews Thursday, even from groups who are inclined to support her, The New York Times’s Sewell Chan reports from Washington.

Under a White House plan, Ms. Warren would become an assistant to the president and a special adviser to the Treasury secretary responsible for overseeing creation of the bureau that was established in the sweeping financial overhaul measure signed in July.

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