Wednesday, September 15, 2010

Elizabeth Warren To Be "A Special Adviser"



Huffington Post:

The White House has tapped Elizabeth Warren as a special adviser to help set up the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, ABC News is reporting. The move allows her to act as an interim head of the CFPB and will enable her to begin setting up the agency immediately and prevent the GOP from filibustering her nomination. Warren could serve until Obama nominates a permanent director -- a nomination he's not required to make for some time. Obama could also nominate her as the permanent director in the near future, a prospect that has been discussed among top aides, according to a person familiar with the White House deliberations. Warren will also be named as a special adviser directly to Obama, ABC reported.

A senior Democratic congressional aide with knowledge of the decision confirmed the ABC report to HuffPost.

The CFPB was a cornerstone of President Obama's Wall Street reform package and Warren is credited as the intellectual founder of the agency.

Intellectual founder. That's nice. So she gets to set up the Bureau but might not be nominated to run it because of being too blunt-spoken and because of this:

Warren would report to both the Treasury Department and the White House in a role that would not require Senate confirmation. The 61-year-old Harvard University professor had been considered the leading candidate to head the bureau itself, but her lack of support in the financial community could have set the stage for contentious Senate hearings that may have ultimately derailed her confirmation.

Heh. Next the Surgeon General will be nominated only if the tobacco industry supports the nominee.