Short List Emerges for Consumer Guardian

[ProSense]

Short List Emerges for Consumer Guardian

By SEWELL CHAN

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A three-person short list includes Elizabeth Warren, the Harvard law professor whose proposal to create the agency was embraced by Mr. Obama and who is the favorite of liberal advocacy groups.

The other candidates are Michael S. Barr, an assistant Treasury secretary who helped shepherd the legislation through Congress, and Eugene I. Kimmelman, a former consumer advocate who is deputy assistant attorney general in the antitrust division of the Justice Department.

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But Ms. Warren, 61, a scholar of bankruptcy law, has limited management experience, and as chairwoman of the Congressional Oversight Panel for the Wall Street bailout, has occasionally clashed with the Treasury secretary, Timothy F. Geithner.

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Mr. Kimmelman, 55, is a former Washington lobbyist at Consumers Union, and Mr. Barr, 44, a University of Michigan law professor, has battled frequently with banks over the last year and a half, so all three of the likely nominees are likely to face serious opposition from the banking industry. All three declined to comment. “It will be a major fight in the Senate, no question about it,” said Michael D. Calhoun, president of the Center for Responsible Lending, an organization in Durham, N.C., that was pivotal in pushing for the bureau. The group is close to Ms. Warren but has not taken a formal stance on the nomination.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

1. They all look good, but I hope Ms.Warren gets the nod...

And the job.

[ProSense]

2. It's not like the President has a choice.

If he doesn't pick Warren, it will prove the evil Geithner won.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

3. True. But does he care about that?

[ProSense]

4. I hope not. n/t