Elizabeth Warren: Too Big to Fail

[ProSense]

Elizabeth Warren: Too Big to Fail

by abs0628

This won't be one of those long diaries but I wanted to bring to the attention of the DK community an illuminating profile of my Senator Elizabeth Warren, just published today in the (sadly) final issue of the Boston Phoenix.



David Bernstein, longtime political reporter for the Boston Phoenix, scored a rare sit down interview with Senator Warren recently. He met with her on the day of her now infamous questioning on the minimum wage during a hearing of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee, which was notably diaried here (video at the link).

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The profile in the Phoenix, in contrast to much of the recent MSM coverage of Warren, gets it just about right, I think, and also provides an interesting window on the balance Warren is attempting to strike as she learns to navigate the parochial terrain of the US Senate. Warren has been very strategic, but she has by no means kept a low profile or failed to speak out loudly and forcefully on her key issues (the plight of the middle and working class, and the criminality of the big banks).

Part of her strategy has been to prioritize local issues and local media; she has gotten near constant (and overall very positive) press in local media throughout Massachusetts over the past few months since being sworn in -- and most of that coverage has been a result of extensive local events and work on local issues (business development and job creation in regions throughout the state, the fisheries crisis in Massachusetts, how the sequester will adversely hit Massachusetts, etc.).

But the other part of her strategy, which Bernstein notes at length, is the polar opposite of the Hillary Clinton strategy. Warren has made waves -- deliberately. She has been outspoken. She has been warm and polite and solicitous of her colleagues (the piece is full of glowing reviews from her colleagues), but not at the expense of staying quiet. And she has not shied away from criticizing the Obama Administration, a move that a freshman Senator would normally avoid at all costs, "the kind of behavior that would get a lot of new lawmakers smacked down hard, or marginalized into ineffectiveness."

But, as Bernstein notes:

"Warren has an independence and authority that frees her to be outspoken without getting alienated."

I've excerpted a few of my favorite bits from the Phoenix article below but you really should just go read the whole thing:

She is, in her own way, too big to fail.

(...)

And that might be what scares her Wall Street enemies the most. There is no amount of money, or scurrilous attacks, likely to cause her downfall at the polls.

That will only make them more eager to find other ways to halt her efforts. They will counter-attack at every opportunity — as with the current attempt to derail Cordray's re-nomination — and undoubtedly plan longer-term strategies to limit her sway.

- more -

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/03/21/1195898/-Elizabeth-Warren-Too-Big-to-Fail

[Cha]

1. Thanks for the very encouraging story on

Elizabeth Warren, ProSense.

[madokie]

2. I love this lady

what I mean is I love that she is going to be a REAL Senator, not a paid operative for the rich like so many are.
I just hope she is being extra cautious cause the rich and powerful have no qualms with silencing voices such as hers and don't care just how its done as long as the voice is no more.

[politicasista]

3. Kick