Elizabeth Warren is ready to name and shame. After 10 long months spent crafting a brand-new federal agency in her image and likeness, years before that willing the institution into statutory existence, only to be passed over on Sunday in favor of Richard Cordray just as the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is moving out of beta, Warren, on a press call late yesterday afternoon, was eager to share her clarity on who’s to blame for the especially precarious position the new federal-friend-to-the-American-consumer now finds itself in.
Those enemies of Warren, of the CFPB? Republicans, first and foremost, namely Senate Banking ranking member Richard Shelby (R-AL) and the forty three other Republican senators who signed a letter to Obama in May raising heck over the “unfettered authority” the CFPB had supposedly been granted by the Dodd-Frank Act, passed in the wake of the mortgage meltdown. That’s no surprise. But Warren’s also annoyed with the press for buying the GOP’s story that it’s simply a more efficient consumer advocate they’re eager for, when really what Republicans want is for the CFPB to die an early death. She also blames her own political naiveté. She’s been “too busy busting [her] tail” in starting an agency, she says, and didn’t pay all that much attention to those inside the Beltway sharpening their knives. Some heard those noises over at 1600 Pennsylvania. Perhaps she’s heard the chatter that Obama was more sold in public than in private on her eventual appointment as CFPB’s first-ever director. But Warren gives Obama and fellow Democrats a pass.
“Let me put it this way,” said Warren on yesterday’s call. “I’m saving all the rocks in my pockets for Republicans. And if that’s too partisan for you, then shame on me.”
It is beyond me why anyone would be against her running against Scott Brown (except for the lunatics, who would be upset she wouldn’t attack Democrats enough). You want more and better Democrats, she’s right there. And she’s tough. And if she wins, Harry Reid better make damned sure she is on every committee that Richard Shelby is on.
cmorenc
In the wayback time machine, Richard Shelby was once a southern Democrat who was among those who switched parties to Republican in 1994.
kansi
I would SO be watching Cspan 24/7 for the Shelby Smackdown!
MattF
And the way to beat Brown is to show that underneath the ‘I’m just a cuddly doofus’ layer is a Republican. And Warren is the person to do that.
Trollenschlongen
Elizabeth Warren does not seem they type to suffer fools gladly. A huge portion of a politician’s time, especially during a campaign, is spent suffering fools, primarily in the form of her potential constituents, who expect candidates to do stupid shit like stand outside Fenway Park and act interested in baseball. Cause, ya know, baseball knowledge is essential to governing.
She should have been appointed to the agency she created, rammed thru by any means necessary.
Yeah, I know: But whaaaaaaaaambulance, the republicans are so mean…
Culture of Truth
Cultist.
Trinity
If she runs, I’m maxing out my contribution.
And I’m broke.
That woman is well worth ramen noodles.
Tim Connor
Hunter Gathers
If she decides to run against Senator Cosmo Von Truck Nutz, I hope she has unusually thick skin. Senator Hot Pants will go to any lengths necessary (with generous assistance from national GOPers) to keep the low level of celebrity that he worked so hard to attain. What, you think that he drove that truck to his daughter’s equestrian event and blew Curt Schilling for nothing?
LGRooney
She doesn’t swear? Can’t we find a real D somewhere?
Anyone in politics who begins sentences that way has immediately got my attention. That is someone with some passion & repressed anger and she’s on our side? And she’s intelligent? And she’s educated?
And someone ostensibly in the D column thinks their time is better spent flinging poo?
joes527
Am I the only on who hears “Rob Corddry” whenever I read “Richard Cordray”
Librarian
Of course the GOP is to blame, but the Democrats, especially one in particular, haven’t exactly covered themselves in glory on this either.
AAA Bonds
She should run, but it won’t be easy.
PreservedKillick
I hope she buys a fucking Smart Car and drives all over the state spreading progressive rainbows and hammering the teaparty.
“Scott has a truck? I have a cute pink Smart Car. And I’m smarter than he is.”
Chyron HR
Of course! Only an Obotomized Obot Opologist Oncologist like Elizabeth Warren would disagree with that.
Bobby Thomson
Is there anyone who actually opposes her candidacy other than declared Republicans? (Links or it didn’t happen.)
Just seems like you’re beating up a straw man.
FlipYrWhig
Why do you presume that there were any such means? This is just shy of “Git ‘er dun.”
MoZeu
Until I saw her on Maddow this week, it never occurred to me that she could be interested in running. I assumed she wanted to get the hell out of D.C. and back to teaching. I’ve revised my opinion . . .
MoZeu
Until I saw her on Maddow this week, it never occurred to me that she could be interested in running. I assumed she wanted to get the hell out of D.C. and back to teaching. I’ve revised my opinion . . .
Culture of Truth
Yes, that’s interesting. It almost as if she thinks the shameless GOP and their false-equivalency, enabling allies in the media are somehow the real problem…
Fucen Pneumatic Fuck Wrench Tarmal
that is the money shot right there. this needs to be a theme from now through 2012.
Tom Q
I really like Elizabeth Warren, would support her to the max, but something worries me. Has anyone noticed that MA — that bedrock Democratic state — has trouble with women candidates?
I’m not talking just about Martha Coakley’s blowing a chip shot last year; she had her own, singular “Why should I know who pitches for the Red Sox?” problems.
But go back a ways. Shannon O’Brien ran in the early 00’s, and somehow MA residents decided a Republican governor wouldn’t be so bad, after all. Enter Mitt Romney.
And before that: in 1990, some woman (can’t recall her name) ran in the Dem primary and was passed over in favor of John Silber…a conservaDem so odious my deep-red GOP aunt loved him. In that context, GOPer William Weld became the liberal alternative, and got elected.
What I’m saying is, every time a woman runs for the Dem nod in MA, they seems to end up electing a Republican. They may be a Democxratic state, but their high-progressivism is in question. And Elizabeth Warren might be just the sort of candidate who provokes their “Republicans aren’t so bad” reflex.
Genuinely hope I’m wrong, as I love Warren. But history is what it is.
quaker in a basement
More like this one, please.
aisce
@ bobby thomson
nope. just beating up on dumbshit jane hamsher. though i suppose you could fairly reduce her existence to some sort of inanimate tokenism. her entire person is a straw woman.
(by the way, i think this is post #9996 on lady jane of the perpetual poutrage in the last year. four more to go! we can make this happen. yes we can!)
jl
Thanks for the article.
The article provides lots of useful information despite itself. mainly because it provides lengthy quotes from Warren.
Maybe the author didn’t have time to wreck the whole article, so plugged in the holes with quotes. Or maybe it was the editor’s work. Anyway, other than the quotes, the article reeks of empty cynical beltway snot nosed punkism.
‘Elizabeth Warren Makes It Personal’
What personal things does Warrent say? Nothing I can see.
Then there laughable little attempts to spice up the piece with some fake semi implied dish like this
“We are not going to hire just one group of economists who all take the same point of view,” [Warren] says, perhaps in a dig at the White House economic team. “That is the height of intellectual capture. It runs the enormous risk that the agency can blind itself.”
This stupid and cynical little suggestion about a ‘dig at WH’ in the same article where Warren talks about her study of regulatory and intellectual capture.
But, it’s in the Atlantic, so if the author didn’t do it, probably Atlantic editor messed with it to give it that tone of flashy, but somehow also dowdy and ponderous, sleaze that distinguished our national political culture.
Edit: to be super cynical, the tone might be an attempt to fit Warren into the knowing but really stupid, with it but really out of it, smart but really ignorant, US political narrative: Warren is taking personal potshots because she did not get her powerful big position. It’s all power and games, supposedly
FlipYrWhig
@ Bobby Thomson : Jane Hamsher chided PCCC for raising money to support Warren’s running for Senate because as a senator she’d inevitably be coopted by What Obama Wants. In other words, Hamsher opposes the idea of Warren running for Senate — presumably because she’d be more effective as an advocate outside of electoral politics. But I’m not linking to the Furies’ Dogleg.
Trollenschlongen
Oh Flip, you’re so cute, acting as if the Dems give a flying fuck about…anything other than campaign cash.
Why do you think it is, that the Republicans rarely fail to come up with some twisted tactic that they can exploit to further their aims, while Obama and the Dems rarely succeed in doing this? Perhaps for lack of trying.
I will remind you bots: it is not MY job or YOUR job to do the President’s job. That is HIS job. It is likewise his job to figure out how to achieve his aims through whatever means are necessary. And I think he’s done that, which is why he governs somewhere to the right of Ronald Reagan.
People like politicians who “git’er done one” way or the other, and don’t come asking the public HOW to do their own fucking job.
SenyorDave
Unlike Brown’s last opponent, Warren will make sure that Brown ends up looking like a wingnut. Judge a man by the company they keep, and Brown is keeping company with the Republicans. If the parties were switched, you can bet the term un-American would be used against Democrats on a regular basis.
John Puma
Sure, if Warren were elected to the senate then “Harry Reid better make damned sure she is on every committee that Richard Shelby is on.”
This is assuming the Dems retain control of the senate, of course.
FlipYrWhig
@ jl : I noticed that too. Even in the excerpt there are those moments of “some heard,” “perhaps,” and other mindreading. You’re talking to the woman herself. You’re trying to characterize her views accurately. Let her say it her way rather than shoehorning in more Cynical Tales of the Dolchstosse.
Temporarily Max McGee (soon enough to be Andy K again)
jl
Read again:
stuckinred
efgoldman
I ever tell you I spent half my tour in Nam in a NG Outfit from RI?
FlipYrWhig
@ Schlong : Isn’t this what used to be called the “Green Lantern theory of politics”? Imagine it and instantly create it?
aimai
I’m here in MA and I’m hoping Warren throws her hat in the ring. She’s a hard worker, she has national prominence, and I think her schoolmarmy/no nonsense style is going to play well with MA dems against Brown. I think she’ll bring the independents who are really dems back in the fold and I think Brown’s former teapartiers and lazy independents aren’t enough to overcome indy (unerolled as we say here) and dem votes.
Brown’s election was a fluke. It looked impressive because it was the only way the republicans and white people could signal their rage against Obama’s recent election. But this election is going to be an all out push in a state with a fairly good voting record for straight dem tickets. If regular and angry dems didn’t come out Brown could get in just because his name is on the ballot and there’s a certain inertia. But in a presidential election year with regular dems pissed off at Republicans? Brown will be toast.
aimai
JC
Warren is awesome, but I don’t think it is going to possitble to beat Mr. Telegenic Brown.
I’ll have to send money though.
Still, better her honesty and down to earth grandmotherliness, than anyone else.
GambitRF
“Tonight on Sean Hannity, radical leftist Elizabeth Warren calls for Republicans to be publicly stoned! Why hasn’t Obama condemned her violent rhetoric?!”
stuckinred
In other Democratic women under attack:
“I have to tell you I was unfazed by his email,” said the Democratic congresswoman. “It’s not surprising that given the pressure that the Republicans are facing, they’re defending ending Medicare as we know it. Congressman West represents thousands of senior citizens which is what I was pointing out and they would face significant increased costs due to the Medicare plan. And, it’s not surprising he would crack under the pressure of having to defend that.”
DWS
lacp
I like Ms. Warren a lot, but I’m not sure she could get much done in an institution that, as one of its members pointed out, is wholly owned by the banksters.
PreservedKillick
Frankly, she’s probably done more to move Scott Brown hard left – already, without even announcing, just by not being nominated – than anything else could have.
She wins or she loses, Scottie has some hard thinking to do.
Pococurante
I’m making a t-shirt with that slogan emblazoned on it.
Violet
I love Elizabeth Warren. I’ll also be one of those out-of-staters donating to her campaign. I love her no-nonsense style. And her grandmotherly ways will win over a lot of people.
jl
@31 Temp Max Magee
I read it correctly and I saw Shelby’s name.
Given the tone of the piece, the part of the title ‘Makes It Personal’ did not simply mean that she named the person who was most opposed to her nomination.
But perhaps you were making a little joke; if so I apologize.
evinfuilt
It would be the first time I’d ever done out of state contribution, but she is what we need in the senate, from every state. A senator not of the banks, but of the people. I love that idea.
Pliny
Man, I love that last line. What on earth would motivate Harry Reid to give Hypothetical Senator Warren power over the owners of the Democratic Party?
OzoneR
Not putting a Senator Warren on the Banking Committee would be like not putting Patton on Armed Services.
Judas Escargot
@Tom Q:
Like others here, I’ll be donating to Warren if she runs.
But… She’d only win metro Boston, the areas around Amherst, and parts of the Cape & Islands. Not enough to beat the Senator from Fidelity.
Bobby Thomson
Like I said, links or it didn’t happen.
ETA: Let me be clear, I’ve heard that Hamsher nixed the idea, but it sounded like snark to me and without links, it just looks like an urban legend. Like all urban legends, it seems plausible, but no one ever links to anything. Happy to be shown the proof.
stuckinred
efgoldman
8 Guard units called up after the King assassination and sent. A 175 outfit from Bardstown, KY got overrun and lost around 9 guys in one night. It was my luck to be RA and end up in the Guard!
eta, actually there was a Sidney Goldman in the outfit, I think he’s in the grocery business.
mpbruss
If she runs here in MA, she’s got at least 1.5 volunteers already (I can probably drag the wife to half the stuff–and if she gets fired up about Warren like I am that’s basically 2.5 volunteers).
If we can get local Democrat loyalists (and I think there’s a few out here) to see that this is an important election with national implications (because that’s what Republicans made of Scott Brown winning Kennedy’s seat), I think she’s got a great chance at winning.
boss bitch
If only every Dem/Lib pol would think and act this way.
Bobby Thomson
Never mind. Found it.
And that’s some grade A stupid.
Just Some Fuckhead
@boss bitch:
Yes, and I dream of a day when the commenters here aren’t attacking everyone to the left of Ben Nelson.
goblue72
@Tom Q – Coakley was a horrible campaigner and your typical Democratic statewide candidate that gets barfed out of the Massachusetts Dem machine. A complete dead fish that oozes Beacon Hill Democrat (not “WASP Beacon Hill” but “Dem machine Beacon Hill”).
O’Brien was the same. I met her at a fundraiser my firm threw for her. It was a small group of attorneys, so plenty of time to get up close and personal with her. She completely sucked the air out of the room within 5 minutes of talking. (She may have reduced the oxygen levels even before talking.) First time I ever saw a candidate eliminate enthusiasm levels that dramatically. My only thought after that meeting was “Oh dear God. We’re doomed.” We still might have lost if Robert Reich had gotten the nod, but at least we would have gone down swinging.
Thank god for Deval Patrick. Notably, he ran OUTSIDE the Mass Dem machine, who had their own candidate (state AG Tom Reilly, another dead fish)
If liberals want to see a woman elected to Governor or US Senate, then they need to find someone outside the machine. Like Warren.
Tom Q
efgoldman @ 39 — Absolutely, it’s possible those three previous races involving women were all decided by localized circumstances having nothing to do with gender. I hope that’s the case, for Warren’s sake and the state’s/country’s. I just found it a disquieting pattern.
Pliny
@boss bitch 52
Yeah! If only everyone would stick to pointing out the total corruption and fealty to Wall Street of the Republican Party while completely ignoring the total corruption and fealty to Wall Street of the Democratic Party, so much would be accomplished.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Yeah, it’s a shame people here spend all their time supporting sell-outs like Al Franken and Nancy Pelosi, instead of proven, effective pols like Russ Feingold, Dennis Kucinich and Dr Dean.
PreservedKillick
Hard to say. Coakley was just such a poor candidate. Looking at the electoral map for my district, Brown took most of it. Last election, the dem ran against a (fairly) moderate republican and won handily. I would expect a Warren/Brown matchup to play out about the same way, and this district alone would go a long way towards erasing Brown’s lead.
Still a long way off, but if Warren is smart, and works her ass off for the job, it’d be interesting to watch. And I think she’d win handily.
Uncle Clarence Thomas
.
.
It would be tragic if Elizabeth Warren used the bully pulpit, which we all here know is impossible, ineffectual, and uncivil.
.
.
kay
That’s why I like her. She doesn’t even breathe when she gets rolling :)
DWS is going to pass out one of these days, mid-sentence. When they revive her with oxygen, she’ll just take up smoothly where she left off.
stuckinred
kay
there’s a joke in there but I’ll leave it be!
kay
Oh, by all means make it. This happens to me all the time. I don’t see the double meaning that everyone else sees.
Just know that I won’t get it, and you’ll be stuck explaining it to me. I’ll have questions. Many, many questions. I can kill a joke, dead, and I’m not afraid to do it.
stuckinred
kay
it’s a little dicey for mixed company and I don’t want to get tagged as a sexist pig.
HyperIon
Hunter Gathers @#8 (damn you, absent reply thingy) wrote:
I watched her two appearances before the Senate on CSPAN. The tension in the room was palpable when certain antagonistic repubs ask questions. She didn’t back down. She tried to be polite but did not back down.
FlipYrWhig
@ JSF : Are we talking about politicians, or people who follow politics? If you’re to the left of Ben Nelson and your idea of political strategy is to say, “Stupid politics, be more liberal!,” or, “Just find a way!,” sure, you might take a few elbows in comments here.
If you’re to the left of Ben Nelson and your political strategy involves building coalitions, finding the right openings, and using leverage to move actual results leftwards, I don’t think anyone who posts here has any problem with that. If you’re to the left of Ben Nelson and can make a case that you’re a good fit with your constituents, I don’t think anyone who posts here has any problem with that. I’ve never seen a word of criticism of Sherrod Brown, Sheldon Whitehouse, Barbara Boxer, Al Franken, or Debbie Wasserman Schultz, to name a few politicians; I don’t remember much discussion of activist organizations who used the right tactics, apart from Kay’s reports from the grassroots, which I always enjoy.
batgirl
@stuckinred And in other “both sides do it” here is how the Miami Herald reports the West/DWS “conflict”:
Read more: http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/07/19/2321651/west-trashes-wasserman-schultz.html#ixzz1Sg0gIZoE
Tom65
Don’t give Hamsher any ideas.
stuckinred
batgirl
Well she did say he was cracking under the pressure and for a bad-ass uncle tom airborne ranger, snake eatin motherfucker that is bad medicine.
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@stuckinred: How is mrs. stuckinred. Better I hope, though I’m certain the coolish weather in GA is no more, since it’s sweltering in OH.
Just Some Fuckhead
@FlipYrWhig: What?
stuckinred
a hip hop artist from Idaho
The ankle is progressing as well as can be expected. The immediate and consistent icing and fabulous walking boot and brace I got helped. Now it’s a matter of encouraging her to let it heal fully before she starts back on her pack mule routine in the garden. The dogs do NOT like her not being on the morning walk but they only got the boot from the bed for one night so they’ll live.
thanks
and it is hot an a mofo up in here
RalfW
Where’s her exploratory committee donate page. I’m ready to give. We need smart, plain spoken Dems like her.
FlipYrWhig
@ JSF: What’s the confusion? I was responding to your comment that
I don’t think that’s remotely true. I think people to the left of Ben Nelson get “attacked” when they show no understanding that the same political strategies may not work in every district, or that not all Democrats are liberals. Then I cited some people who are clearly to the left of Ben Nelson who have never been “attacked.” So I don’t know what you’re getting at about who’s attacking who and on what ideological basis.
Temporarily Max McGee (soon enough to be Andy K again)
stuckinred
Wait. I haven’t been here so much lately. What happened, and when did it happen?
stuckinred
Max,
It’s just a badly sprained ankle. I noticed the garden gate was left open Friday morning and when she walked out on the screen porch she looked there instead of where she was stepping. Ass over tea-kettle.
trollhattan
36.GambitRF – July 20, 2011 | 3:03 pm · Link
This is just money.
One of many things I’d love about seeing Warren campaign and then, hopefully govern is that she’d not only point out her opponent’s errors, she’d correct them on the spot with facts. I don’t observe this very often.
OzoneR
this woman gets more bizarre by the day.
Davis X. Machina
How to get elected in MA? This is how. I have two union-member brothers in MA who both voted against Coakley, and these clowns are why.
Fifteen hours a week of unpaid GOP campaign ads. In a region with long commute times — and lots of car radios.
Not all political talk radio is political talk radio.
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@stuckinred: Please encourage her to rest it. When I blew mine out 18 years ago, I actually had good advice from a dancer who told me that he didn’t rest his sprain long enough and was still paying for it 15 years later. Would that I’d listened to him. It’s still weaker and bothers me in “weather” all these years later.
I completely understand the temptation to do too much too soon. I hope mrs. stuckinred can resist it better than I could. Perhaps the heat will assist with that.
Derf
As usual, Captain Doom John Galt Cole shows just how naive he is about politics and the world in general.
So it is no surprise what so ever that he does not understand Massachusetts politics.
Temporarily Max McGee (soon enough to be Andy K again)
stuckinred
Phewww…I thought it might be something really serious, like a car accident. Guess I don’t have to wear the hair shirt for having been on the Big Lake as you suffered. :D
Just Some Fuckhead
@FlipYrWhig: So it’s okay to attack some on the left but not others and you get to decide who and everyone else is a firebagger?
Did I get that right?
Ash Can
@FlipYrWhig: If Warren ran against Brown, then, it wouldn’t surprise me to see Hamsher raising campaign money for Brown, ’cause it’s all about the principle of the matter, yanno?
FlipYrWhig
@ JSF : I feel comfortable arguing with people who claim to be “on the left” and yet show no awareness of how to make anything leftish happen except by an implicit or explicit theory that blustering loudly shows “leadership,” which people respect, triggering a process that ultimately converts everyone into liberals. Oddly enough, it’s because I’m also on the left and my annoyance derives from the way other people who profess to also be on the left claim that our mutual goals should be pursued rather then from the goals themselves.
Just Some Fuckhead
@FlipYrWhig:
This pretty much sez it all, don’t you agree?
rikryah
if she runs, I’d send her some money. and, I’d phonebank for her. she is the type of DEM CANDIDATE I’ve been waiting for.
Cain
@Tom Q:
Don’t worry, we’ll be blaming Obama for not using the bully pulpit and it will be the second time that he threw her under the bus.
Monala
Tom Q @ #23: I lived in MA for more than 20 years until 2008. Here are some of my recollections about women running for office in the state:
I can’t remember the woman who ran against Silber either. But yes, odious is the word for him.
In 2002, Jane Swift was going to run as the Republican for governor, after having served as Lt. Gov. She eventually stepped aside for Romney. I think she got caught in the same attitudes that hit Sarah Palin for running for VP so soon after giving birth to a special needs child. Swift had a toddler, had just given birth to twins and lived in Springfield, 3 hours from the state capital, so people were “concerned” about her ability to handle being the mother of 3 young kids, having a long commute, and governing.
Romney ended up running in 2002 against three other women: Shannon O’Brien as the Dem, a Green Party candidate, and an independent. I remember the debates between the four, and honestly, Romney came across so much better than any of them. The Green Party candidate talked like someone defending her disseratation, the Independent was like Sarah Palin–clueless about the issues, and Shannon O’Brien came across as snotty.
And that wasn’t unusual for O’Brien. I used to attend City Council meetings in Boston and the like, and one of the things I noticed is that most politicians are good “people” people. You introduce yourself to them, they treat you like an old friend. Even Obama, for all the talk of him being professorial in press conferences, is great at working a crowd. Not so O’Brien. She comes across like you’re an imposition on her time. And if you don’t pay attention to politics, and all you see is that attitude, it has an impact. (FYI, I still voted for her. I wasn’t going to vote for Romney)
In contrast, in 2006, two women (Romney’s Lt. Gov and a Green Party candidate) and two men (Deval Patrick as the Dem and an Independent) ran for governor. That debate was very different, in that there was no clear winner. Instead, all four came across as intelligent, personable, and knowledgable. In fact, a Globe editorial the next day opined that each of them came across as competent enough to run the state, and it would be great for the winner to make places in her/his administration for the other three. But of course, 2006 in MA was a little like 2008 nationally–a charismatic African-American man had the chance to make history by become the state’s first black governor, and that’s what happened.
So what we’ve had in MA is more of a mixed bag rather than clear-cut negativity toward women candidates. We’ve had poor candidates, such as O’Brien and Coakley; we’ve had women who were the victims of misogynistic attitudes (would anyone have criticized a man with the same personal circumstances as Swift for running for governor?); and we’ve had women whose strong candidacies weren’t enough to beat an exciting and historically significant male candidate.
I wish I could remember who ran against Silber, though, because I agree, he was appalling.
Alex S.
This looks like a campaign speech.
In my opinion, she shouldn’t even run against Brown, but against the prospect of a republican majority in the Senate. Brown himself would not be easy to beat.
Monala
I see goblue72 had the same impression of O’Brien that I had!
OzoneR
Evelyn Murphy
Monala
Thanks, Ozone. According to Wikipedia, Murphy withdrew before the primary and endorsed Francis Bellotti, who lost to Silber.
TG Chicago
BTW, one thing worth considering is that there’s a good chance that both Massachusetts seats will probably be up for grabs in the next few years. We know about Brown’s, and it’s fairly likely that Kerry will move over to Secretary of State if Obama gets re-elected.
Dolbia
I think she’d be wasted in the Senate – she’d become one voice in 100, rather than the exceptional advocate she is today. Arcane Senate rules and procedures would swallow her talents in policy and advocacy.
I’d rather see an Obama/Warren ticket in 2012. The VP role gives her a platform and a lot of flexibility in what she works on. Also, it’s a good idea to run a VP who could conceivably get 2 terms as President, and the Biden is too damn old.
(She’s also on my list of people I’d vote for as Benevolent Dictator.)
SiubhanDuinne
Someday, may I live to see it, the CFPB will be housed in the President Elizabeth Warren Building in Washington, DC.
Edited to fix elected position.
Arclite
SO, when can we start an Act Blue page for Elizabeth?
4jkb4ia
I think EW’s point was if you actually had a choice between her running the CFPB and being in charge of something she has cared about a significant portion of her professional life and being one of 100 where nothing is getting done, you take the first one. But the nomination is hers to reject right now. Also she was losing by double digits in the poll I saw, which was PPP IIRC.
This is too good, man. Absolutely too good. (NYT observes that the Pirates are winning)
(Thank you, 96.)
4jkb4ia
(I am stuck giving FDL the traffic because they didn’t port the comments over to the new site. Otherwise I would have absolutely rejoiced here that I never have to go there ever, ever again, unless I am feeling generous towards the new Gosztola person.)
(And I cannot think of anything that John cares less about.)
4jkb4ia
But PCCC should knock themselves out. Warren is an obvious symbolic figure for better Democrats. If PCCC can find more and actually go on offense when the DSCC has to protect the incumbents from 2006, more power to them.
Anne Laurie
The common denominator behind all these ‘individual’ failures? Both political machines here in Massachusetts are full of old-fashioned sexists, the kind who “don’t mind how close a woman gets, as long as she don’t get too high”. Would-be female politicians are only allowed entry if they’re non-threatening (to a bunch of old white men in suits), which means by definition ineffective. Women who might be capable of winning a state-wide contest are barred from competing at the lower levels because they’re called “boat rockers” or “ball breakers” or worse.
As I’ve said before, asking why Coakley was a lousy candidate is like asking why Michael Steele was an apologist for GOP racists. They got their jobs because they Made No Waves, and when some wave-making might’ve benefitted the group that hired them, they didn’t have the capacity.
Professor Warren didn’t go through this process, which is one of many reasons why she’d be a great Senate candidate!
Arclite
@ Anne Laurie,
Good points!
RockyMissouri
Go Elizabeth, give ’em hell…!