It turns out the Elizabeth Warren has already taken front stage in the fight to protect this country from the new age robber barrons. It was she who convinced Obama to veto the egregious speedy foreclosure bill:
Elizabeth Warren was the first senior Obama administration official to recognize the potentially incendiary impact of a bill that would have made it significantly easier for mortgage companies to foreclose on homes, and her subsequent warnings played a crucial role in persuading the President to veto the measure, according to freshly released documents and people familiar with the deliberations. LINK
And now the long knives are coming out.
Warren now finds herself at the center of an intensifying debate over the relationship between the Obama administration and the business world.
...and they are coming after her:
For a vocal group of business leaders and their Republican allies, Warren has become Exhibit A in their case that the Obama administration is anti-business.
The decisive way in which she labored behind the scenes to stymie a bill that would have eased requirements for documentation in the foreclosure process underscores how her arrival has altered the administration's relationship with major banks.
...and the new Republican House is certainly going to try to tie her up in "oversight" investigations:
The White House's appointment of Warren "circumvented the advice-and-consent process and undermined one of the key checks and balances in our Constitution," declared Rep. Spencer Bachus (R-Ala.), the ranking member of the House Financial Services Committee, and Rep. Judy Biggert (R-Ill.) in a letter addressed Monday to the inspector general at the Treasury. "Treasury Department officials have provided little or no transparency with respect to their activities such as which organizations are meeting with Treasury officials." LINK
Kudos to the Obama White House for listening to Elizabeth Warren on this bill, and let's hope they continue to act on her advice. Let's pay close attention to tactics from the right in their attempts to derail Ms. Warren and her new agency. Let's also pay close attention to the Obama Administration. Is Obama going to go to bat for Elizabeth Warren and use the power of the office of the president to defend her from these jackals, or is he going to leave her out there on her own. This is a critical time for Obama. He is going to get an earful at his upcoming retreats and summits with the newly empowered congressional Republicans and new friends at the US Chamber of Commerce. Let's make sure that Elizabeth Warren and consumer protection does not become another compromise on the bargaining table.
Stay tuned and let's let Elizabeth Warren know that this community has her back.