Were you worried that, having been given a position in the Senate leadership, Elizabeth Warren would be coopted by the party establishment? That she’d stop directing her criticism wherever it needed to go, regardless of party affiliation?
Early indications are that your fears might have been misplaced.
Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren plans to oppose President Obama’s pick for a top Treasury post, a move that signals a disconnection with party establishment even as she takes a role within Democratic leadership.
A Warren aide said Friday the senator will not support Antonio Weiss, a Harvard-educated Wall Street investment banker the president nominated earlier this week for Treasury undersecretary of domestic finance….
Her opposition puts her at odds with the White House, which defended Weiss and other nominees as “hard-working individuals [who] will help us tackle the important challenge facing America.” …
“We really do have this knee-jerk reaction where, when we have to have Treasury officials, where do we go but Wall Street,” [Mark Calabria , director of financial regulation at the Cato Institute] said. “These are very legitimate concerns she is raising.” …
Weiss, who earned a master of business administration at Harvard University, has been a prominent donor for the president and Democrats such as Senator Charles Schumer of New York. Weiss worked with the Center for American Progress, a liberal think tank, on a 2012 report that examined ways to reform the tax system and bolster the middle class.
American Progress president Neera Tanden, in a statement after his nomination, said Weiss brought “expertise in financial markets” and a “deep commitment to the goals of this administration, including smart policies that spur economic growth and support the middle class.”
It’s really just fantastic. Solid Dems like Obama and Schumer, and respectable “liberal” operations like the Center for American Progress, love the guy; the Cato Institute hates him; and there’s Warren, no doubt royally pissing off Schumer (who just welcomed her into Senate leadership), Obama, and the rest of the establishment Dems who have gotten far too cozy with Wall Street over the last several years.
I’ve been extremely skeptical of the talk of a Warren presidential run, and I believe her when she says no. But I will say this: at the moment, I can think of no other person with any substantial national profile who can both rally Dems and at least get a hearing with independent-thinking libertarian/conservative types like Cato. And that is a very big deal.
I think Warren, Sherrod Brown, Franken, and Sanders are going to be more vocal among others. Brown is already talking about working with those guys and others to stop fast track authority. We gotta hold the fair trade Democrats accountable and have their back when they have ours-but we know going into this that Obama is in the wrong.
…that even the Center for American Progress, which runs the ThinkProgress website, is not liberal enough anymore? I agree that Wall Street should not be the automatic applicant pool for Treasury officials, but I don’t want purity of the “Tea Party” variety on our side either.
I did vote for Markey after all, and largely agreed with you that his NAFTA vote was not disqualifying. I even tries drafting you for office in spite of our disagreement on trade 😉
I’ve been on both sides of the fence. Very much an anti-NAFTA/anti-WTO guy in high school, I felt that if the same forces in both parties backing the war
backed free trade-than free trade has got to be bad. Then I became an Economist reader, took a class on globalization, and realized that protectionism can’t work in a modern economy even if we wanted it to, and became a free trader for awhile until the last few years when it became obvious these agreements have shed more jobs than they created and the new economy is full of holes large enough for millions of Americans to fall through.
Germany is a great model to copy-I think they better balance of trade and strong manufacturing sector with strong unionization is a viable model to pursue. Brown and Warren are right to stop TPP which would shed middle class jobs we can’t afford to lose.
CAP appears to be in with the Wall Street crowd. Call it what you want; doesn’t seem like a good way forward to me.
Their “business alliance” donors include:
Allstate
Bank of America
Citigroup
Visa
Wells Fargo
Basically, the same types of people that support the Clintons.
it’s a John Podesta operation. He was Clinton’s Chief of Staff. He’s also a counselor to Obama as of 2013. Christ, he’s even from Chicago. He and his brother founded the Podesta Group, a lobbying firm whose clients include Walmart and BP. I look at CAP’s ThinkProgress everyday, but I’ve found their education policy to be corporatist. Needless to say, I wouldn’t necessarily expect CAP to run contrary to Obama policy.
Schumer and Obama are in deep with financial sector. Not much of a surprise there.
With all that said, thank God for Elizabeth Warren. It’s rare for me to support someone who I so strongly believe in as our senior senator.
I was a former right wing Rush Limbaugh guy until a few weeks into the Iraq War where I finally began to open my eyes and take note. I was hesitant to join ranks with the Democrats for a variety of reasons: our state house leaders committing felonies, Clinton’s deal with NAFTA and his pals on Wall Street, and so on. I went independent for a while and canvassed for Jim McGovern at a time when I was terrified (and still am) of the Tea Party loons. Soon after Elizabeth announced her candidacy for the senate, I went “all in” and became a registered Democrat.
I just went back and looked at your former postings, at least one of which I had recommended. I’d really love to hear more of your political thoughts as they evolved over time, and why they evolved that way. Not just for personal reasons, but I’m hopeful that we could all learn from your experience and insights.
The Republican party has lost the reasonable center. Sadly, many in the Democratic Party don’t deserve that center, and can’t convince them to join except on a “better than the alternative argument.” Warren offers a real choice for the better.
Elizabeth Warren is exactly right that we can look in other places than Wall Street for the requisite expertise.
William K. Black who is an expert in financial regulation is now teaching at the University of Missouri – Kansas City.
Even the acknowledged best investor in the U.S., Warren Buffet, works out of Omaha, Nebraska.
Senator Warren has a backbone.
My wife and I had been though a lot. I lost faith in myself. I was trying to get back on my feet and it was tough. I saw myself as a failure. My sister kept telling me about this “Elizabeth Warren” and one day I searched the Internet and found this video. It’s an hour long, but worth your time.
The Coming Collapse of the Middle Class with Elizabeth Warren
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akVL7QY0S8A (wish I knew how to format this better)
I watched it three times in a row. It explained what had happened to me, to us, to my family. It gave me hope and more so, it gave me something to fight for. I emailed Elizabeth Warren explaining my family situation and thanked her for her work and the video I had watched . A week or so later, I received an email from her assistant explaining that Elizabeth reads all her emails but cannot reply them all, but rest assured she has read mine and appreciated our story, my unemployment, my wife’s illness, and our near bankruptcy. She was glad that we were getting back on our feet.
About a mouth later, I received another email from her office but it was not from her assistant, it was from Elizabeth herself, thanking me once again for my story and how much she is working to improve things for all of us.
Fast forward a few years and my wife and I are in line at Framingham State College for the first meeting of volunteers for Elizabeth Warren’s senate bid. Elizabeth is personally greeting each one of us. I wonder if I should mention the emails from a few years ago and decide this may be my only chance to show my gratitude.
As I shaker her hand, I quickly blurt out “I wrote you an email a few years ago about my unemployment and how much we were struggling…” and before I could go any further, Elizabeth said, “Yes, I remember that, is your wife okay? Is she here?”
My wife was there and Elizabeth gave her a hug. Of course there were a few tears.
I’ve told this story countless times when I was canvassing for Elizabeth and when anyone dares to challenge her character or question her motives.
I hope she runs for president.