Gibbs: Elizabeth Warren Is A 'Terrific Candidate'

Elizabeth Warren is a "terrific candidate" to lead the newly created Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and is "very confirmable" for the job, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs told reporters Monday.

Progressive advocates, labor unions, House members and more than 100,000 petition-signers have been pressing the White House to name Warren to lead the bureau. Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) recently speculated that she may not be able to get the 60 votes needed to overcome a filibuster of her nomination; Gibbs' statement appears to be a direct rebuke of that skepticism.

"I would say Elizabeth Warren is a terrific candidate. I don't think any criticism in any way by anybody would disqualify her. I think she's very confirmable for this job," Gibbs said, echoing a deputy spokesperson who also expressed the White House belief that she could win confirmation.

Establishing that Warren is confirmable is a crucial step toward her nomination.

Support continues to build for Warren, the intellectual godmother of the bureau, in the Senate. On Saturday, Sens. Al Franken (D-Minn.) and Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) expressed support for her.

Add Tom Udall to that list. On Friday, the Democratic senator from New Mexico sent a letter to the White House backing Warren, a copy of which was provided to HuffPost on Monday.

Republicans have objected that Warren has an "agenda" -- in the words of Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Ala.) -- and Wall Street lobbyists strongly oppose her.

Udall urged the president not to back down in the face of such opposition. "While some may argue that her passion will lead to overzealous regulation, Dr. Warren's work on the Congressional Oversight Panel has been evenhanded," Udall said in his letter. "Should you decide to nominate her to lead the Bureau, it will be a clear sign that the Bureau will be a champion for the American consumer, will stand up to unscrupulous actors and will not shrink from... fulfilling its mission under pressure."

Comments

[HeliosOne]

05:20 PM on 07/28/2010

Platitudes... she should be THE candidate, not just a TERRIFIC one...

[munki]

11:44 AM on 07/28/2010

I for Warren, even to replace Geithner with Warren...

[Mikeeee]

12:47 PM on 07/27/2010

Elizabeth would make a real difference for the middle class, and for that reason, she won't get the nod.

[sheine]

12:32 PM on 07/27/2010

The Democrats don't recognize a gift when it is dropped in their laps. A Republican fight against Warren would be a great election issue. The campaign issue would be that the Republicans are against her because she would be too good at protecting ordinary Americans from unscrupulous businesses.

Another good campaign issue would be to introduce a bill that keeps the Bush tax cuts for middle and lower income people but not the rich. Let the Republicans filibuster it.

[throwcautiontothewind]

11:02 AM on 07/27/2010

Keep up the pressure!!!!

www.whitehouse.gov/contact

(and email or call your Senator).

[lightbulb10]

12:20 PM on 07/27/2010

YUP

[iceage7]

10:08 AM on 07/27/2010

She is terrific..just like the public option is terrific..But BUT...Obama does not have the fight in him..he has to consult his other party (republicans)

[GabeSmall]

10:15 AM on 07/27/2010

BUT no nomination has officially been made. Why read more into it than that?

[mtrem]

10:06 AM on 07/27/2010

Elizabeth Warren is too honest, intelligent, and independent for the republicans to endorse. Way, way out of their league.. I would love to see her stare down a creep like that idiot that wants to do away with Social Security....

[reader1]

11:17 AM on 07/27/2010

Wouldn't that be perfect. Elizabeth wrote the book along with her daughter called the money trap. She explained several years ago about the disappearing act of the middle class, how we got sucked into housing to have our children in better schools. It's been five years since reading the book and everything she stated has come to pass. They will never pick her, she knows too much and they do not want an advocate for ordinary folks. I am hopeful though!!! At least we will have our eyes and ears opened upon her appointment.

[iceage7]

10:01 AM on 07/27/2010

Whne will Obama really fight..he does not like to get his hands dirty..he likes it when pelosi and reid have to fight for him and all he does is sign the bills and get credit

[GabeSmall]

10:16 AM on 07/27/2010

He doesn't have to fight for her until he nominates her.

[Mikeeee]

12:51 PM on 07/27/2010

Agreed. health care for example, all he had to do was say he would veto a bill that did not have at minimum a "strong public" let them send one up, he vetoes it, sends it back for the conservatives to obstruct again. People would see then who the bad guys are and start to apply pressure.

[iceage7]

09:59 AM on 07/27/2010

Udall urged the president not to back down in the face of such opposition? Obama does not like confrontation especially when he has to make a decision solely on his own. This time he can not hide behind pelosi and reid to do the fight for him and all he has to do is sign the bill.

[fredhead]

09:53 AM on 07/27/2010

Translation: Elizabeth Warren will not get the job. The White House also announced that it supported the public option AFTER it had made a backroom deal to kill it.

This crowd does the opposite of whatever it says publicly. Especially if they can publicly support programs and appointments that benefit all Americans while pursuing policies and making appointments that do exactly the opposite. Witness who they hired to implement the new health care reform: a WellPoint exec (lobbyist?) who worked for Baucus to get the current health care plan through the Senate. Yeah, she'll represent all our interests at the expense of the companies (and people) she's worked for over the years.

[GabeSmall]

09:54 AM on 07/27/2010

When she is nominated, how will you explain this comment?

[fredhead]

01:32 PM on 07/27/2010

Easy: I was wrong. But my point remains the same. This Administration is extremely corporate in its policies. They believe, as Republicans do, that private business can solve most of our problems, perhaps all, better than the government, despite evidence to the contrary. So, when the Administration says they support Warren, or the public option, or anything that benefits most Americans, skepticism is warranted based on their past actions.

[hrc04]

09:43 AM on 07/27/2010

Ah progressives....don't you know by now that saying "we don't care one way or the other on nominating Elizabeth Warren" is the quickest way to get her nominated? ;-)

[ThatsTheTheWayItIs]

09:23 AM on 07/27/2010

He's being kind. A law professor does not have enough experience for this job.

Most of us have been rejected for a job we knew we could do, but were unqualified.
We think we were wronged, but we weren't.
Why should a hiring manager choose you, over someone with more experience?

Same thing here. It's incredibly arrogant for us to demand to pick the appointee.
Obama's the hiring manager, it's his choice. We should recommend, not threaten.

[GabeSmall]

09:26 AM on 07/27/2010

"A law professor does not have enough experience for this job."

How about a law professor who demonstrated very effective oversight over a $700 billion program?

[ThatsTheTheWayItIs]

10:21 AM on 07/27/2010

What do you mean by "oversight"? She never managed such a project, did the budget. If you're talking about TARP, she was basically an auditor. I was a bank auditor once, that didn't mean I was qualified to be a banker; I wasn't. Auditing is a very superficial view of any activity.

She had no one "reporting" to her. Not that I know of, and certainly the NYT article made no mention of it. (And that's NYT, a liberal paper, not WSJ). And she was not then a government employee.

Think what you want, if you hired a professor to that job, she had better be perfect, because if not your boss would blame you for not hiring someone more qualified, by generally accepted standards. Hiring someone because you like or believe in them is not what is done, and it's not what people want done. It's unfair to those who have the right experience.

[DaveInWheaton]

01:45 PM on 07/27/2010

Obama is the hiring manager, who has failed and most counts - Geithner, Summers, Rubin, Salazar - the list goes on and on. Do I trust his hiring decisions? Has he gained that trust? Absolutely NOT.

I have every confidence in this "law professor" you have disdain for, and I have no confidence in any corporatist appointment Obama would make. What is really arrogant for you or anyone to suggest Obama would make the right decision without the public demanding he do the right thing for the public, not the corporatocracy, FOR A CHANGE.

[ThatsTheTheWayItIs]

08:29 PM on 07/27/2010

Fair enough, good points, though I'm not sure what to compare them to.

Clinton? Didn't passed health care, signed repeal of Glass-Steagall, which may well have caused economic meltdown.

I was born in 1950. The last major regulation of industry before Obama was when Nixon created the EPA.

Success is always relative, so some can't recognize it when it bites their butt.

[hmargret]

09:17 AM on 07/27/2010

Warren is totally qualified to help out.....that's why she WOULDN'T FIT IN ON THE OHBUMMA TEAM.

[GabeSmall]

09:19 AM on 07/27/2010

When she is nominated, what will your next attack line be?

[SocialistDistortion]

09:27 AM on 07/27/2010

How far did you get in school?

[dawlishgal]

08:46 AM on 07/27/2010

Gibbs didn't say that she was the best choice....just that she is a "terriffic CANDIDATE." To me that means that Obama is preparing to give her to big kiss off in favor of somebody who won't rock his boat full of chosen corporationists in his den of administrative appointees.

We HAVE to keep on this, keep the pressure up to get one decent person appointed in the middle of this pack of corporationist crooks who are now guarding our financial henhouse.

[throwcautiontothewind]

11:05 AM on 07/27/2010

email now:

www.whitehouse.gov/contact

[DaveInWheaton]

01:47 PM on 07/27/2010

I hope you are wrong, but I fear you are correct.

[OkieMon]

08:45 AM on 07/27/2010

why do i think this woman is hot?

[throwcautiontothewind]

11:06 AM on 07/27/2010

You're not alone--John Stewart, while interviewing her, said he wanted to kiss her.