The proposed nomination of Elizabeth Warren to the director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, an entity she envisioned and invented, has reached a higher likelihood in recent weeks. She met with David Axelrod and Valerie Jarrett about the job last week, and before that she met with bank lobbyists at the Financial Services Roundtable, [...]

The biggest indication that Elizabeth Warren might just get the nomination to head the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is not her visit to the White House yesterday, which Administration officials parried with the usual “the President thinks she’s a champion for the middle class and a strong contender for the position, but he has made [...]

Following up on the story about two top House Democrats seeking a personal meeting with the President to discuss the Elizabeth Warren nomination for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the Senate side has two new endorsers, including the number two in the Democratic leadership. Heads up: Add Dick Durbin and Carl Levin to the list [...]

Chris Dodd was the guy who said a few days ago that the Senate has actually been working wonderfully in this session of Congress, with so much productivity, and that the desires of freshman Democrats to restructure the rules of the body were misguided. I wonder what he’s thinking today, as a nominee for the [...]

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi just announced that she would call the House back into a rare August session “early next week” to get final passage on the state fiscal aid bill, which cleared a Senate cloture vote earlier today. This would ensure that states got the funding for their Medicaid and education programs without having [...]

I don’t know if Chris Dodd thinks it’ll be easier in his post-Senate career lobbying his colleagues to have minority veto points, or whether he’s just pining for some imagined, halcyon time of comity and bipartisanship, but he’s been the most vocal member of the Senate against filibuster reform, and he apparently informally lobbied some [...]

The people who don’t want Elizabeth Warren running the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau have consistently sought other options. One of the perennial alternatives has been Treasury Department official Michael Barr, and he gets the profile treatment at the Wall Street Journal, with an emphasis on his preference for tough rules on those who offer financial [...]

Elizabeth Warren is supposed to be a divisive figure, someone that Republicans (and some Democrats) who want to protect bank profits would reject out of hand. And yet, Republicans who have worked with her closely on the Congressional Oversight Panel, monitoring the TARP, showered her with praise yesterday: The two Republican appointees to the Congressional [...]

Chris Dodd told TPM Tuesday that Elizabeth Warren still “may not be confirmable” for the position of director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and he rejected the notion of a recess appointment for the position. But in a troubling sign that Dodd doesn’t understand the bill that bears his own name, he made no [...]

Chris Dodd, sounding like a pundit instead of a voting member of Congress, downplayed the prospect of Elizabeth Warren’s nomination to run the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau by doubting whether she can be confirmed. A key Democratic senator this morning dealt a blow to the hopes of many liberals that Harvard professor Elizabeth Warren would [...]

Getting the Federal Reserve to actually fulfill their mission of maximizing employment is the one of the most important things for the economy right now, given the gridlock in Congress on any stimulative measures. Yesterday, the Senate Banking Committee held a hearing for the three Federal Reserve Governors nominated by President Obama, and Chairman Chris [...]