Updated at 1:23 p.m. on July 19.
A key Democratic senator this morning dealt a blow to the hopes of many liberals that Harvard professor Elizabeth Warren would be chosen as the first head of the newly created Consumer Financial Protection Agency.
Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., chairman of the Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee, said he doubted that Warren, a favorite of liberals, could be confirmed by the Senate. The CFPA is a key piece of the financial reform bill passed last week and is to be signed Wednesday by President Obama.
Dodd made his comments on NPR's Diane Rehm Show on Washington public radio station WAMU. Asked about Warren, who is chairing a special commission created to oversee the bank bailouts, Dodd said that "no idea is terribly creative if it can't sell" and he asked rhetorically about Warren, "Is she confirmable?"
Warren has been an outspoken critic of Obama administration decisions on bailouts, tangling with Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, among others, in public hearings. She, in turn, has been a target for Republicans, who warn that the CFPA will go too far in imposing onerous regulations on business.
Speculation has ramped up in recent days about the CFPA appointment, the most prominent associated with the financial reform bill, and the signal the choice might send about how serious the Obama administration is about cracking down on abuses of consumers by banks and other financial companies.
Another candidate is Assistant Treasury Secretary Michael Barr, who would be much less popular than Warren with liberal Democrats.
-- Alexis Simendinger and John Maggs
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