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Watching Wall Street execs actually being grilled by a member of the Banking Committee will be a welcome sight
Nearly two years after Wall Street waged a successful campaign to keep consumer advocate Elizabeth Warren from running the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the incoming senator will be tapped to serve on the Banking Committee, according to four sources familiar with the situation. It’s a victory for progressives who battled to win her a seat on the panel that oversees the implementation of Dodd-Frank and other banking regulations [...]
Sources also told HuffPost that Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) will be named to the panel.
This is a layup of a give to progressives for the Democratic leadership. Elizabeth Warren deserves to be on the Banking Committee. Almost nobody in the Senate has her credentials. The decision was Harry Reid’s and Harry Reid’s alone, so there was no protracted fight with obstructionist Republicans to navigate. And she’s nicely balanced out by Joe Manchin, at this point the most conservative member of the Democratic caucus.
It doesn’t mean that this isn’t critical. Warren will be able to highlight financial issues from her perch on the Banking Committee in ways that she wouldn’t elsewhere. Ted Kaufman (D-DE), the accidental Senator (he briefly replaced Joe Biden) who tried for two years to go after Wall Street, didn’t have that Banking Committee slot, and it hurt his efforts. He didn’t have the inside track on what was happening on Dodd-Frank, for example. Warren to Banking definitely matters, however much of a bone it is thrown to the progressive base.
It will be a welcome sight to see an actual cross-examiner in committee hearings, to see Wall Street executives actually grilled by at least one member rather than the love-fests we normally see. Warren has stated that she envisions the Senate as a platform to highlight her views. I can’t think of a better foundation for that platform than the Banking Committee.
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Fingers crossed until it happens.
But, yeah — fun times ahead.
Yeah, now there will be someone losing important votes with Bernie Sanders. She should run for President in four years…on the Green Party ticket unless the D’s do a major transformation from recipients of K Street largesse to actual Democrats.
Nonsense.
I’m not holding my breath on Warren being able to accomplish much, but if she accomplishes a lot, she will be lined up well to run for president for 2016.
I read this earlier today and got real excited. Then, to calm myself down, I figured I’d come over here to get my enthusiasm tamped down.
Glad I wasn’t disappointed.
good news.
OT: be sure to miss Joe Lieberman’s “exit interview” on NPR’s Talk of the Nation today. I can only imagine how smarmy and clueless Neal Conan will be in saluting this “great statesman”…
For old times’ sake: My contempt for Joe Lieberman will never abate.
heh… well, better to be prepared, I guess.
I like this, but let’s see what happens is my ever-trusty watch-word. That said, good luck to Warren. Hope she can accomplish *something* that benefits the 99%. That would be a change I could believe in.
Not holding my breath…
heh… let Conan KNEAL before LIEbertoad & do whatever (bleah)… but do so away from my hearing it! buh-bye LIEbertoad… hope the door slams hard on you sorry butt on the way outta here…
I love hear dearly, have great respect for her credentials/past actions. She has a lot of great ideas and the best of intentions. BUT, I’ll reserve judgement until I see that the walk really does match the talk.
Thing is, folks, she can only do so much by herself.
Yes, she can do a great job of questioning/grilling of the poor unfortunates that happen to come before her committee. But she will be the junior member. She will need to convince/persuade more than a few recalcitrants to her point of view.
She will be a force to be reckoned with, for sure. But she can’t do it alone.
That may give “the people” much closer losses on committee votes of about 16 – 6 while the Banksters win what they want. It will give the dims plenty of soundbites for empty PR about pretending to care.
Warren will be bought in 5..4..3..2..1 “poof”.
I don’t buy that.
Good grief, people. I stand second to none in my sense of betrayal by the Obama administration (including failure to appoint Warren to head CFPB), but not every Democrat elected to high office is craven. No, Warren will not be bought. Marginalized, perhaps. But there are indeed a few who have, and keep, their integrity. My belief is that she is one of them.