“Qualms”
September 20, 2010 | CFPB Nomination, Elizabeth Warren, Financial Reform Bill - CFPB, federal legislation | Comments (0)The Washington Post isn’t happy with the Elizabeth Warren appointment. From Sunday’s editorial:
WE HAVE QUALMS about Elizabeth Warren, the Harvard law professor President Obama has put in charge of setting up the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection. The new body, which will have a half-billion-dollar budget and wide regulatory power over mortgages, credit cards and the like, was her brainchild. It emerged from Warren’s zealous campaign against what she called the “tricks and traps” of the banking industry, which has made her a hero to the progressive wing of the Democratic Party. Like many such activists, however, Ms. Warren can be simplistic and hyperbolic.
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Mr. Obama would have been better off picking a more confirmable candidate, as some senators from his own party had urged. Even a recess appointment for Ms. Warren — which would have lasted through 2011 — would have been preferable in terms of sticking to constitutionally prescribed processes for filling federal offices. But either move would have infuriated progressives, who still dream of a full five-year term for Ms. Warren — and whose support Mr. Obama needs in November. For all intents and purposes, the president has created, and filled, a de facto directorship. This might have been in keeping with the letter of the laws, but not with their spirit.
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