Progressives are pushing President Obama hard to nominate Elizabeth Warren to head up the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau created under the financial overhaul law. Warren, a Harvard law professor, is a leading expert on consumer debt and Congress' chief bank-bailout watchdog, and the CFPB was originally her idea. But some Senate Democrats are balking, warning that she would be hard to confirm. Why? And are their fears justified? (Watch Warren discuss the failures of the bank rescue)
Dems have dumbed-down "controversial": Democrats like Chris Dodd (CT) are essentially arguing that Warren is "too controversial to be confirmed by a Democratic Senate," says David Sirota in The Huffington Post. Huh? Where were the cries of "too controversial" with Wall Street–coddling nominees like Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner? Washington is "hijacking" the word to protect "the economic status quo" from a strong "agent of change."
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