A New Senator, Known Nationally and Sometimes Feared (Elizabeth Warren)

[onehandle]

BOSTON — When Elizabeth Warren created the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau in Washington two years ago and sought to become its director, she was fiercely opposed by Republican senators who feared she had a visceral loathing of financial institutions and would be a thorn in their sides.

President Obama was so convinced she could not win Senate confirmation that he did not even bother to nominate her.

Now, Ms. Warren, 63, is returning to Washington as a member of the very club that sought to block her and dilute the power of her consumer bureau. She got there by campaigning against the big banks and lobbyists, the millionaires and billionaires who, she said, rigged the system against the middle class.

The question now is how she will approach her job as the newly elected Democratic senator from Massachusetts. How will she interact with those who spurned her? How can she most effectively fulfill the populist promise of her candidacy while serving in an institution that runs on seniority and prefers deference to defiance?

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/11/us/politics/elizabeth-warren-known-and-maybe-feared-on-national-stage.html?hp&_r=0

[AnnaLee]

1. In their face everyday!

I had not thought about it that way but, yes, instead of just giving her the job and burying her in the bureaucracy, they have to contend with her everyday as an equal. What justice is that ?!!!!

[freshwest]

36. Indeed. Especially after the gross disrespect she was shown in a hearing by the GOP. Sweet!

[imanamerican63]

2. She will do a great job!!!!!

Walk softly, but carry a loud voice for all Americans!

[Anthony McCarthy]

3. They fear her because

They fear her because she knows more about these things than they do and won't lie for the banks and other crooks. A senator they don't own is a dangerous thing, for them, a wonderful thing for the rest of us.

[Tigress DEM]

4. : ))

[jsr]

5. There should be more like her

to at least cancel out the worthless asshole baggers in the Senate, like Ted Cruz.

[Thinkingabout]

25. I am in Texas, we would like to discuss a trade, Cruz for Warren.

[pangaia]

35. Sorry, you can't have her.

And I live in New York. :&gt )

[Thinkingabout]

43. Okay how about taking him for free?

[pangaia]

45. Nope. :>)

[MiniMe]

6. They would have been better off approving her nom to be consumer protection head

Oh well. Too bad, so sad.

[onehandle]

8. She was our best chance to take down Brown. He was inexplicably popular in MA. nt

[magical thyme]

15. re-read the title of post you responded to....*They* would have been better off

with her buried in the bureaucracy. (Now they have to deal with her every day )

*We* obviously are better off with her very effective replacement, who hasn't ended up buried in the bureaucracy.

And *We* obviously are better off with her in their faces every day.

Too bad (for them). So sad (for them.)

[onehandle]

17. Yeah, I'm glad it worked out this way. The post would have been a few years at best.

Now, she could be in the Senate for a long time.

Or President in 2016.

[MiniMe]

33. Yes, "They" meaning the repukes

Scott Brown can take his pickup truck and go home

[FiggyJay]

7. Dare I Say It?

Elizabeth Warren will be our next President. She already has my vote.

[onehandle]

9. Dare. nt

[former-republican]

10. Excuse me while we get out of the way for another millionaire to represent the middle class

Go ahead and hide it jury but I feel none of these people understand what's it like to struggle.

[magical thyme]

16. if Liz Warren is a millionaire, it's because she struggled to make it.

And her actions to date strongly suggest she hasn't forgotten that struggle.

She wasn't to the manor born.

[former-republican]

19. We will she

Call me a cynic but the net worth of senators and congressman is appalling.

And also how much it increases when they finally leave their seat.

[magical thyme]

32. You mean like former Senator, now VP Biden?

They aren't all greedy pigs at the trough, although sometimes it may seem that way. Time will tell which way Liz Warren turns, but her personal history and track record suggests she will be anything but a pig at the trough.

Off the top of my head, Warren used to be a conservative (as I recall, Republican) who favored strict personal bankruptcy laws for the little guy "deadbeats."

Then she did research at Harvard to support her conservative beliefs... and discovered to her shock that the vast majority of personal bankruptcies were due to the huge medical bills that accompany major illnesses, loss of jobs during recessions, etc.

Since she is highly intelligent and fact-based, she changed her beliefs to match the reality she discovered. The more research she does, the more she adjusts to match reality.

As a highly intelligent and educated attorney, she could have made millions in much easier ways. Instead, she seems to have chosen economic justice and fairness as her crusade in life, and fixing those injustices are the direction she chose for her career.

[Moosepoop]

20. If you don't think Elizabeth Warren understands

what it's like to struggle, then you obviously don't know anything about her early life. I suggest you read up on it.

[former-republican]

24. I'm going to do that right now

[Warren Stupidity]

27. Your post is uninformed and insulting.

Perhaps before you slam Warren, you could at least look up her biography. It is online. Here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_Warren

You can post your retraction here anytime. I'll wait.

[former-republican]

29. I read the good and the bad so don't spend too much time waiting

There's a lot more than wiki

[Warren Stupidity]

31. Here is what you said that was completely uninformed bullshit.

Go ahead and hide it jury but I feel none of these people understand what's it like to struggle.

In fact, as you claim to have done the research, you know that Warren grew up desperately poor. Your post was nonsense. You do not even have a fallback to a claim of ignorance, as you now claim to have done the research. Please provide any evidence at all to back up your assertions.

[geckosfeet]

37. We are all waiting. Especially those of us in MA who voted for her.

The whole world's watching.

[former-republican]

42. No she didn't and to try to portray her like that is wrong( desperately poor) get out of here

Her father had a heat attack and he had a cut in pay and lost his car.
Wow so have millions of other people who are not desperately poor.

WOW ! She baby sitted at 13 ......let me get out my kleenex

She married a NASA mathematician at 19 with good health care and a steady good income.
She was able to go to college full time to get her degree.



She did well during the mortgage melt down flipping a few houses .

Both her and her first husband had a good salary and guaranteed health care their whole lives.
When she married again same story.

Please spare me ......... I can show you families who have grown up desperately poor.

I'm too damn old and too damn tired to place people on pedestals .
You want to do that be my guest.


Am I glad a democrat won the seat ? YES am I placing her on a pedestal , not on your life

[onehandle]

46. You don't have to have suffered to be a good legislator.

Yep. She schooled well. Married well. Worked well. Invested well.

So did Mitt Romney.

Only one of them gives a fuck about you and me, and uses their good choices in life to benefit us all.

She has earned a 'pedestal' and if given the chance, will earn FDR status.

The Senator-Elect scares the Fuck out of the Right, and for damn good reason.

[heaven05]

28. that

MAY be true, yet I feel she has a soul that money can't buy. Thank You very much for your support. 2016, POTUS. I'd vote just on gut feeling about her integrity. My immediate gut feelings about mittshit, lyinaynryan? Oh fuck no!!!! GO E.W 2016

[Dustlawyer]

11. I am not worried about her!

[clyrc]

12. I'm so happy she won!

And, she's originally from Oklahoma, which is a state of such dunderheads it's a small miracle... I was talking to my Okie mom last night about the election and she didn't know Elizabeth Warren was originally from OK, so she was doubly happy for her when she found out.

[Shuhered]

13. She Passed the Electibility Test

She has a lot of class and knowledge. She adapted to such a is hostile environment while campaigning that it seems she is ready to handle the feckless wonders of the Right in our Senate. Huge congratulations to Elizabeth Warren-- we'll all be better off with her tenure than we ever would have been with a Romney presidency.

[ywcachieve]

14. WooHoo! Senator Elizabeth Warren..

I love the sound of that.

[greiner3]

18. The first female,

And next President of the United States!

[Politicub]

21. Remarkable election - I'm still in awe of the gains we made

I'm jealous of your new senator, Mass!

[A Simple Game]

41. There is no need to be jealous. Ms. Warren is not a Massachusetts

Senator. Ms. Warren is a U. S. Senator who is FROM Massachusetts.

She is also my Senator and I am from New York! I would trade my two Senators for her, any takers?

[INdemo]

22. This article may come closer to

confirming her commitment to middle class America

http://abcnews.go.com/Business/sen-mitch-mcconnell-meet-sen-elizabeth-warren/story?id=17684060

[shrdlu]

23. The Senate Banking Committe...

... where she must be posted. We must lobby for that with Harry Reid and Obama too, who was late to the game and partly responsible, IMHO, for that tool Scott Brown being elected in the first place.

Harry claims to be a fighter and Elizabeth is for sure. Cards, Letters, emails, faxes, tweets, smoke signals (snark) to your senator and partyt leaders. It is important.

[daa]

26. I signed the petition to convince her to run

Nd sent money several times. I am so proud of her. Maybe with Bernie and Sherod we can prevent an assault on social security and Medicare.

[patrice]

30. Smiling here. Celebrate!

[Phentex]

34. Hear her

ROAR!!!!!!


Go, Ms. Warren!!!!!!!!!

[rudycantfail]

38. Best thing that happened election day.

[Oilwellian]

39. She has enemies on Senate Banking Committee & they're trying to prevent her being appointed

Behind the scenes there are people working to keep her off the committee. A former Senate aide tells me that the banking committee staff does not like Warren and have begun to quietly campaign against her. Lobbyists are telling senior Democrats that Warren might be “more effective” on the Judiciary Committee, which does bankruptcy oversight.

The staff of the Banking Committee is extremely tight with lobbyists for the banks, many of whom are former members of that staff. The staffers and lobbyists socialize together, drink together, and sometimes even marry. They are elitists who think of themselves as a cut above other Capitol Hill aides. And they pretty much all want jobs at banks someday.

http://www.cnbc.com/id/49762821/Elizabeth_Warren_May_Not_Make_the_Banking_Committee

[riderinthestorm]

40. K&R. A big indicator of how much she's feared. nt

[joshcryer]

44. She did not want the neutered Consumer Protection job.

She didn't want the fight to get a job that was neutered by the Republicans. It was all her decision and she set her sights higher.

[onehandle]

47. Agreed. This all worked out perfectly, if you ask me. nt