This ought to make one group of TMV regulars happy. A Jake Tapper exclusive:
President Obama will announce this week that Elizabeth Warren, the Harvard Law School professor who first proposed the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, will be named to a special position reporting to both him and to the Treasury Department and tasked with heading the effort to get the new federal agency standing, a knowledgeable Democrat told ABC News.
Warren’s title will be Assistant to the President & Special Adviser to the Secretary of the Treasury on the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. …
Naming Warren as an assistant or counselor to both the president and Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner would allow the president to bypass a Senate confirmation process that could prove lengthy and contentious.
Or not. Andrew Leonard at Salon says no one will be satisfied with this back-door, not-quite-an-appointment:
If Obama was hoping to spur enthusiasm among the Democratic base that would get voters to the polls, this is not the way to do it. Instead of inspiring cheers, this news is sure to hit with a dull thud.
On the other hand, if “heading the effort” means that Warren is actually entrusted with real authority to “get the new federal agency standing” — including the ability to pick staff, set an agenda, and start actively going about the business of protecting consumers — then isn’t that actually what Warren supporters want?
Works for me. But this Matt Yglesias tweet illustrates the dull thud, “Obama showing real innovation in developing odd, satisfying to nobody compromises.”
Really? It looks to me more like moving forward and getting things done despite the obstacles. And the confirmation battle I’m looking forward to with Warren is for the Supreme Court.
Memeorandum has more discussion. Earlier this evening Salon posted this interview with Warren. The last question:
What part of your work excites you most right now and going forward? What are you most looking forward to?
This is an historic moment. The president has just signed into law the most powerful financial reforms in three generations. And, coming out of that, it will be necessary to build the real apparatus to make markets work again, to make them work for families, to make them work, frankly, whether they like it or not. To make them work for Wall Street, to make them work for financial institutions, ultimately to make them work for the real economy. It is a moment in which there will be great change and I am simultaneously worried about what could go wrong but deeply excited and even optimistic about what could go right.