BREAKING: Geithner Opposes Elizabeth Warren for Consumer Protection Board!

by: Forrest_Brown

Thu Jul 15, 2010 at 22:21


( - promoted by AdamGreen)


BREAKING NEWS: Huffington Post reports that on the very day the Senate passed Wall Street reform and created a Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Treasury Sec. Tim Geithner is urging President Obama NOT to appoint the most credible person as its leader: Elizabeth Warren.

Sign the PCCC's emergency petition to the President today -- telling him to appoint Elizabeth Warren.  

Forrest_Brown :: BREAKING: Geithner Opposes Elizabeth Warren for Consumer Protection Board!
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, as Ezra Klein explains, is "a huge deal, with the potential to become as important to consumers as the Food and Drug [Administration]", so it's vital we appoint a strong watchdog to lead it. Click here to tell President Obama to appoint Elizabeth Warren.

Elizabeth Warren is feared by Wall Street.

As chair of the bailout oversight panel, she held Wall Street executives' feet to the fire and was not afraid to speak out.

As a Harvard professor, her credentials are impeccable. And she was the one who came up with the idea for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau -- perhaps the best piece of this bill -- in the first place.

Warren is perfect for the position and most financial insiders have just assumed she would get it. That's why it's so outrageous that Geithner -- a longtime Wall Street insider -- would attempt to sabotage her appointment.

Sign our petition to President Obama in support of Elizabeth Warren today. Click here -- then tell your friends.

If we can get thousands of petition signatures by morning, the media will take notice and we can publicly shame Geithner. This is a moment that requires good people to fight back.
(Cross-posted on Daily Kos)

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BREAKING: Geithner Opposes Elizabeth Warren for Consumer Protection Board! | 26 comments
Two Words: (0.00 / 0)
Recess Appointment.
Two more words (4.00 / 6)
Fire Geithner!

Incompetents despise the competent.

Politics is the art of the possible, but that means you have to think about changing what is possible, not that you have to accept it in perpetuity.

[ Parent ]
like with Dawn Johnsen (0.00 / 0)
oh

oh

[ Parent ]
no (0.00 / 0)
A recess appointment is used to bypass the Senate (see, Article 2, "advise and consent" clause).  Anyone can feel free to correct me here, but the consumer financial protection bureau appointment won't be reviewed by the Senate, and is merely a direct presidential appointment.

The obstacle is not the Senate, but Treasury Secretary Tim "I fail upwards" Geithner, who is also, reportedly the object of an Obama man-crush.

[ Parent ]
should read - "temporarily bypass the Senate" (0.00 / 0)

[ Parent ]
This position must be confirmed by the senate (0.00 / 0)
and is subject to filibuster.
[ Parent ]
ok thanks (0.00 / 0)
So, there are 2 obstacles, the Senate, and, if the reports are accurate, Geithner.

[ Parent ]
Surprise? (4.00 / 7)
I was assuming, given past history, that he would appoint someone from Goldman Sachs to that position.

If nothing else, Obama is consistent.

Precisely! (4.00 / 5)
Who did the Obama administration appoint to protect "consumers" ( i.e., patients) from the ever so rapacious Medical-Industry Complex? Liz Fowler.

Repeat: Former VP of WellPoint and author of the Medical-Industry Profits Enhancement Act of 2009... Liz Fowler.

We'll probably get a dude named Madoff as Consumer Protection Czar.

One of his kids, perhaps.

"More than any other time in history, mankind faces a crossroads. One path leads to despair and utter hopelessness. The other, to total extinction. Let us pray we have the wisdom to choose correctly." -Woody Allen, My Speech to the Graduates

[ Parent ]
At least (4.00 / 1)
we can console ourselves with Chris Bower's immortal words, "Wow. We Nominated The Black Guy."

http://openleft.com/showDiary....

[ Parent ]
Geithner is NOT acting independently on this. (4.00 / 8)
Given his relationship with Obama, there's no way in Hades this is an independent act on Geithner's part.

Bottom line here: it's not that Obama's administration isn't sufficiently progressive, it's that they are the very antithesis of progressive anything.

This is your government on drugs. Any questions?

"More than any other time in history, mankind faces a crossroads. One path leads to despair and utter hopelessness. The other, to total extinction. Let us pray we have the wisdom to choose correctly." -Woody Allen, My Speech to the Graduates

Thank you. That is precisely correct. n/t (0.00 / 0)

[ Parent ]
I'm not buying it. (0.00 / 0)
Remember Ben Nelson stayed on the fence because he didn't want Warren. That shows that she hadn't been ruled out as of a few days ago. This leak by "someone familiar with Geither's views" seems like a trial balloon, but it will not fly and Obama will continue to face tremendous pressure to nominate her.
Even if you're right (4.00 / 5)
whether it flies - and whether Obama is under any pressure - will depend on how people respond to the trial balloon. Either way, kicking up a stink is a good idea.

Politics is the art of the possible, but that means you have to think about changing what is possible, not that you have to accept it in perpetuity.
[ Parent ]
Agreed (4.00 / 4)
I signed the petition--twice ;)
[ Parent ]
Did you ever think that there might be more EFFECTIVE ways to protest? (4.00 / 2)
IMO, the most effective way to protest is to threaten to tell the truth - not to politicians, but to the public, some of whom will remember who screwed them come election time. Looking at the HCR debacle, we know that a) Obama lied and b) essentially got away with it. I asked at a recent job who knew about Obama's deal with Tauzin, and nobody even knew who Tauzin was.

If I was Obama, I'd be feeling pretty confident that I could finesse my way out of any lie in service of a screw-job of the public, that I pleased to do so.

Now, if activists had already put Obama on notice that they're not going to forget, and more importantly, not going to let the voting public forget, they'd have some credibility if they threatened to spread the word about why a Geithner wouldn't want an Elizabeth Warren.

Signing a petition is an OK good idea, just like brushing your teeth before a job interview is an OK good idea. However, while you might get away with not brushing your teeth, you're not going to get away with wearing old clothes and scuffed up shoes. So, which is more important?

What plan do activists have to do more than 'brush their teeth', in support of Elizabeth Warren? Probably nothing. All the talk about "making him do it" was just talk, AFAICT.

435 Dem Primaries 2012
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[ Parent ]
Pressure? From whom? The progressive netroots? (4.00 / 1)
That didn't work so well on:  

-  Healthcare;

-  Financial reform;

-  Dawn Johnsen;

-  Supreme Court nominations;

-  Stimulus...

Remember, the President just thinks we're "fucking stupid*"

* In the words of his Chief of Staff.

[ Parent ]
You can do "Inside Baseball" analysis (4.00 / 2)
or you can just recall that we haven't had a republic since at least November 22, 1963, but probably much earlier.

That is why working within the system is a flawed concept.

I'm sure many Politburo apparatchiks wanted to work within the system too, but a t some point you just have to dump the whole thing and start fresh.

If it sounds too good to be true..... (4.00 / 3)
That was my thought when I first heard Warren's name mentioned.  It was just sugar to make their reform pill go down.  Now, they don't need her - poof!  Obama and his administration are a waste.  The only thing he has done that is really popululist is Michigan and the autos.  
Good point. However, a big public stink... (4.00 / 2)
...may make Obama's kabuki theatre backfire. If the outcry reaches a critical mass, that may prevent him from moving on with his script. People should act as if they take his words for serious, and hold him accountable! Only if his loudmouth speeches start to boomerang, he can be forced to act up on his bold claims. I know that the chances are low for this to work, because there are still too many Obamabots who swallow every excuse, no matter how lame, but what else can be done to get some positive action out of this presidency?
[ Parent ]
No doubt we have to raise a stink; but, (4.00 / 1)
no sense expecting it to do any good.  The vast, vast majority of the American public--and almost certainly the vast majority of the OFA database, even--have never heard of Elizabeth Warren or the new consumer agency.  Thus, President Obama faces exactly zero political risk by NOT appointing Elizabeth Warren, while he faces tremendous risk--from his Wall Street donor/handlers--if he appoints her.

No, just add this to the long, long list of shivs stuck into the back of the progressive part of the base.

[ Parent ]
dailykos and Obamabots (4.00 / 2)
I saw you on the rec. list at dkos, and I saw the bots attack in full force.  lord how they hate reality.  What I don't get is why dkos tolerates them.  They are an obnoxious lot.  
Obama is triangulating, setting himself up for 2012 (4.00 / 2)
This is ironic.  Progressives MUST vote for democrats, and en masse this fall, in order to ensure that Obama LOSES in 2012, or that he may be primaried.  Obama is definately trying to set up defeat for the democratic party this fall, so that he can further position himself as a centrist and position himself for a win in 2012.  The Pelosi Gibbs row was not political theory, but symptomatic of a major internal conflict...


Zero chance of a primary, (0.00 / 0)
unless we free-fall into a certifiable Depression--which is a distinct possibility, since we're there already for all practical purposes.  I don't want a Depression, though.
[ Parent ]
it may not be a depression but we're in an economic free-fall (0.00 / 0)
people are mortally afraid of losing their jobs, there's a steady torrent of foreclosures, and we're steadily approaching the return of soup lines

not to mention the gift that this wonderful progressive president has given the working class in the form of hundreds of dollars worth of mandatory bills under the threat of IRS penalties

but, of course, no need to be radical

[ Parent ]
it may not be a depression but we're in an economic free-fall (0.00 / 0)
people are mortally afraid of losing their jobs, there's a steady torrent of foreclosures, and we're steadily approaching the return of soup lines

not to mention the gift that this wonderful progressive president has given the working class in the form of hundreds of dollars worth of mandatory bills under the threat of IRS penalties

but, of course, no need to be radical

[ Parent ]
BREAKING: Geithner Opposes Elizabeth Warren for Consumer Protection Board! | 26 comments
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