Republicans May Force Elizabeth Warren Into Senate Race

[ClarkUSA]

The person who should really want Elizabeth Warren confirmed as director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is Scott Brown. After all, it's pretty clear that if Warren doesn't get the gig, her next job might be, well, his.

Warren is a particularly tough challenger for Brown. His initial election was the product of some very rare factors: First, it was a special election. Second, his opponent, Martha Coakley, was joyless, gaffe-prone, politics-as-usual candidate at a moment when people really hated not only politics-as-usual, but politics-at-all. Forget winning independents. Even Democrats didn’t like her. Third, the tea party was at peak levels of excitement, while Democrats were increasingly disillusioned.

Warren turns most of that back on Brown. The next election is a presidential election, which means that Obama will be on top of the ticket and Massachusetts Democrats are going to have a long campaign in which to remember how they feel about Republicans. Brown is now a senator, with gaffes and goofs of his own, while Warren is an outsider who fought the administration over TARP and is waging a seemingly doomed battle to keep banks and credit-card companies from screwing average Americans over. Third, the tea party likes Brown less than they used to — in fact, some members have turned on him outright — and Democrats in general and liberals in particular adore Warren. It’s very likely that the balance of enthusiasm would be on her side, not his. And though Brown’s poll numbers are high, the state’s political observers consider his support soft. A Warren win atop Obama’s coattails is a lot likelier than, say, Scott Brown winning.

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/ezra-klein/post/why-scott-brown-should-be-elizabeth-warrens-biggest-fan/2011/05/19/AGddZpOH_blog.html

[lumberjack_jeff]

1. That gives me a thrill up my leg.

:woohoo:

[underpants]

13. it's like when we used to climb the rope in gym class

[MannyGoldstein]

2. And clear the way for a banker to protect us from the bankers?

Sounds like a third-way Democrat's dream.

There are lots of other people who can beat Brown in Mass. In fact, Brown's already beaten Brown - once the Mass. Dems focus on his record, he's toast.

[DJ13]

3. You saw through the bullshit

Yep, moving her into being one in one hundred Senators instead of remaining in charge of consumer financial protection would dilute her ability to protect consumers.

[ClarkUSA]

5. The only "bullshit" is coming from those who can't acknowledge the facts.

FACT: Republicans will always obstruct Warren. Gaining a reliably liberal vote in the Senate is a good trade-off.

[ClarkUSA]

4. No, Republicans are obstructing Warren."There are lots of other people who can beat Brown in Mass."

Prove that any of them have Warren's star power, substance, and following.

[MannyGoldstein]

7. OK, Obama is powerless

That's why real unemployment is still almost 20%, and starting to grow even higher.

I just love this stuff. Nobody's ever responsible for getting the job done. Always "I'm being hostaged/obstructed"

[ClarkUSA]

8. No proof, eh? Just another red herring to distract from your empty negative rhetoric.

:rofl:

[PassingFair]

10. Yet the 'pukes managed to get this guy:

...into the fucking UN.

Let's waste some time on the appointment battle.

I'd LOVE to watch it.

[hulka38]

6. It also gets Obama off the hook

for caving to the banks by passing over the obvious choice to head CFPB, Warren. More sneaky third-way shenanigans.

[ClarkUSA]

9. Conspiratorial bullshit. This is WaPo's Ezra Klein's idea, not Pres. Obama's.

[hulka38]

11. As we all should know by now

conspiracies are commonplace at the top of government. Obama's problem of what to do with Warren is being considered by his staff, not just Klein.

[ClarkUSA]

12. How do you know that? Are you privy to Oval Office meeting transcripts?

[hulka38]

14. The WH staff does all manner

of political calculation. If Warren isn't chosen, which I think is better than just a possibility, they're going to try to minimize the fallout from it. It's what they do. You don't think they'd plan for that?

[ClarkUSA]

15. True, but you're making presumptions as to exactly what the WH is doing and thinking, which is BS.

As I said, this is one liberal blogospheric reporter's fond dream, not President Obama's. We do not know anything about what the WH is doing and thinking about Elizabeth Warren nor do we know what Warren herself is thinking of doing or what she has said to her old college friend (who just happens to be POTUS now). To say one knows otherwise is ridiculously presumptuous as well as totally speculative.

Warren is her own woman and she will make her own decisions as to what her future holds, though I must admit, retaking a Senate seat from Republicans would serve good purpose and has launched many a presidential ambition. Democrats could do worse than to have Warren as a future presidential prospect.