Larry Summers helped sink Elizabeth Warren’s nomination to head new consumer bureau

[meegbear]

Source: Rawstory.com

Former White House economic adviser Larry Summers helped sink Senator Elizabeth Warren’s (D-MA) nomination to head the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau in 2010. Summers’ opposition to Warren was reported by The Boston Globe on Wednesday and two former Obama administration officials confirmed the story to The Huffington Post.

Obama appointed Warren in 2010 as a special adviser to oversee creation of the new bureau. She was a favorite among progressives and Obama had considered nominating her to head the CFPB.

Warren’s potential nomination faced strong opposition from Senate Republicans, as well as from Obama’s economic advisers. Both Summers and Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner opposed her nomination. Obama ended up nominating former Ohio Attorney General Richard Cordray in 2011, but praised Warren for her work.

<snip>

Obama is currently considering nominating Summers or Federal Reserve vice-chair Janet Yellen to replace Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke. Warren has publicly endorsed Yellen.

Read more: http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/08/07/larry-summers-helped-sink-elizabeth-warrens-nomination-to-head-new-consumer-bureau/

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And this guy wants to run the Fed? No Fucking Way.

[PoliticAverse]

1. Also discussion on this issue on DU in the thread here...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=3423648

[Xipe Totec]

2. Now the rubber band is on the other claw! nt

[Octafish]

3. Larry Summers, friend of the working man and woman.

Evidence of an American Plutocracy: The Larry Summers Story

A real swell, that Larry.

[JDPriestly]

17. Wow! If that is true, we really do not want Larry Summers.

He is one of the reasons that California got into so much financial trouble. Anyone tied to the rise of Enron is disqualified from a post in our government especially if a Democrat is in the White House. That rules out Rubin too.

[Triana]

4. Two-bit creep. Isn't there a petition on whitehouse.gov against him running the Fed? n/t

[Enthusiast]

42. I believe I signed such a petition.

Sorry, I don't have a link.

[Garion_55]

5. im really not liking what ive heard about this guy

would be one more obama disappointment to appoint that guy

[JDPriestly]

15. Of course, the Republicans will encourage Obama to appoint Summers because that will

help split and weaken our Democratic Party (like so many of Obama's Republican-approved and -advised appointments.) Republicans may be lousy at handling economics and government, but they are good at separating Obama from grass-roots Democrats.

[Marr]

23. Obama's good at doing that all by himself.

He's a very intelligent man-- not some poor lost child being manipulated by the bad guys.

[JDPriestly]

24. Sometimes I'm not sure that he is a Democrat at all.

Even the health care plan was borrowed from Republicans. What has he done that was really Democratic? I have to think pretty hard. Certainly not continuing no child left behind and privatizing schools. Maybe some of the stimulus, but it wasn't strong enough to be really Democratic. It's really hard to find a program he brought into being that wasn't at least as much a Republican one as a Democratic one. I'm sure there are some but they don't come to my mind. That's what is so disappointing. You can't say. Well, Johnson brought in integration and Medicare. Carter brought in solar panels on the roof of the White House. But with Clinton and Obama, there aren't any huge hallmark ideas, new ideas that are distinctly Democratic although Clinton brought in "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" and Obama has broadened the acceptance of gays and lesbians in the military and other government offices. Those are the only really Democratic changes that these two supposedly Democratic politicians have done.

[zipplewrath]

29. Kinda hard to measure

That's always a tough one to argue. There's no real hard definition of what a democrat is.

He has worked with the democratic leadership (Pelosi and Ried). So for alot of people that's what it means to be a democrat. And as you say there has been his work, as soft and gentle as it was, on DADT and ultimately where he, and his administration, got to on DOMA. He's also been a defender of abortion rights and voting rights, albeit I'm sure there are those that would like more.

I know what you mean, it is often the case that he seems to take the most rightward position a democrat could possibly take. He has made the case (when arguing about GOP obstructionism) that about a decade ago he'd be considered a moderate republican. And, as you suggest, he even mentioned multiple times that his ACA wasn't all that different from what republicans proposed in opposition to HillaryCare.

I suspect his legacy in the long run will be a bit like Clinton's. Clinton is very popular today, but about the only thing he'd point to from his time in office is some foreign policy accomplishments, and a balanced budget, which didn't survive past his administration. In fact, much of what he accomplished is now gone. He isn't going to brag about eliminating Glass Steagal, and it's been replaced essentially by Dodd-Frank. DADT is gone. DOMA was declared basically unconstitutional. We can argue about how much of Welfare Reform is left, but I'd bet Clinton isn't bragging about much of it. NAFTA is still around, but again I don't think the Clintonites are going to be doing alot of bragging about that one either.

In the couple of years we had a democratic majority, he did sign things like Lilly Leadbetter, so in essence I think you have to acknowledge that he is "a democrat". But if you are looking for a more LBJ/FDR kinda democrat, you're going to be disappointed.

[NV Whino]

6. Of course he did

Summers is a real shit.

[closeupready]

7. How utterly disgusting.

K&R

[dothemath]

8. Move on, Mr. President ...........

Summers is an egomaniacal, self-important man who rode his intelligence and intellect to high positions and then proceeded to trash those positions of trust. He thinks he is the smartest person to exist since the beginning of time. Fine. Sometimes, though, a little more is required to connect with hoi polloi, and that is the bottom line. To him, a government of the people, by the people and for the people is propaganda and he, because he is so smart, is exempt from abiding by the meaning behind those words. He lacks any ability to connect his acitons with the reality that confronts the 'owner' of said democracy. Let him fade away before he does more damage to the needs and desires of more than 300 million people.

[antigone382]

35. 7 billion people, really.

He has stated more or less that he thinks the environment of Africa is "inefficiently" clean--that because of cheap labor we should ship dirty and dangerous jobs down there to despoil the lives and ecology of the pee-ons. He is a piece of shit.

[elleng]

9. Sounds like the same shit 'good ole boys' put Brooksley Born through, recall???

Resulting in DISASTER! http://video.pbs.org/video/1302794657/

Ended up OK for Warren (and us all, imo,) as happy she's in the Senate and Cordray's FINALLY officially in position at CFPB, but must say all the 'good ole boy' crap has worn thin. These women KNOW what they're doing, and SHOULD be in high positions.

Janet Yellen next?

[Helen Borg]

10. My SO was at Harvard

When LS was Prez there. Most faculty hated this guy and his clueless dictatorial style.

[CTyankee]

33. Myfriend and I were on the same flight to Madrid as he was a few years back...

I heard this guy walking past us as we were waiting to board and heard him bark LOUDLY into his cell phone "What does Treasury say?" and "I'm advising Obama so I need to have that document..." This was in October of 08 so that got my attention. I really didn't know what he looked like then, but he then barked "Send it to me [e-mail]" and I nudged my friend and said "Barbara! That's Larry Summers!"

The guy had the backs of his loafers down and was wearing them like scuffs and he looked like a fat mess. He kept barking into the phone as we were getting on the plane, only he went first into Business Class. Just as well, I guess...

[forestpath]

11. So Obama is on HIS side...not Warren's. Says it all about Obama, doesn't it?

[srican69]

21. Power has gotten to his head - he is forgetting that he works for the people who vote for him. NT.

[ceonupe]

27. What got him in

Really was a switch of votes of the DLC in congress to him from Hillary in exchange for their continued control of the party. Notice how little was done 2008-2010 when we had all of congress and the whitehouse.

Not to discount his team but had the supper delayed not held back in the beginning we would have most Likely had president Clinton and no I don't think it would have been much different policy wise except maybe it would have been more pro corporation. I think she may have gotten a better bank deal done that may have be slightly better but it still would have largely benefitted the banks over the common man/woman

[Jakes Progress]

31. He knows.

More and more it looks like Obama has always known who he is working for. It ain't us. larry summers' appointment would just be Obama working for those that he sees as his boss.

[JDPriestly]

12. Lesson to the young:

Be very careful. The person you badmouth today may be sitting the Senate deciding whether to make you Fed chair tomorrow.

It's a lesson we all have to learn. You'd 'a thunk Summers would 'a learnt it by now. Wouldn't you.

[laserhaas]

16. Like your sign - n/t

[rtracey]

13. remember

The Senate needs to confirm him as Fed Chairman......so ?

[durablend]

18. What makes you think they wouldn't? n/t

[laserhaas]

14. No Summer's - his reign must Fall

This guy is all wrong and Senator Warren has his correct number.

[bemildred]

19. Obama sure does seem to be in a hurry to throw his Presidency away over the NSA and Summers.

Hypocrisy is all very well, but you cannot be so overt about it. His perception managers don't seem to be able to manage perceptions about some things, like spying on those you claim to serve and bank tools like Summers.

[Fuddnik]

20. The President is surrounded by assholes like Summers.

Ever wonder why nothing ever gets done for the middle and lower classes? Just take a look at his cabinet, and economic team. Nothing but Neoliberals, Neocons, Rubinites, Clinton leftovers, and more.

He'll wind up finishing off the Democratic Party I knew.

No fucking Hillaries, no fucking how!

[Tansy_Gold]

26. I think it's the other way around

The president surrounded himself with assholes.



Remember, remember, the 24th of November. . . . .

[Fuddnik]

30. Yes, you're right.

Kind of like seppuku.

[Tansy_Gold]

32. Except he's doing it to us instead of himself

While the whole world watches.

[adirondacker]

22. I'm not surprised that Dirty Larry the Misogynistic Deregulator was involved in that decision. nt

[midnight]

25. K&R

[MotherPetrie]

28. K&R

[UpInArms]

34. Summers is a dirtbag

you can read more about him here:

Why Larry Summers lost the presidency of Harvard

http://mathbabe.org/2012/03/11/why-larry-summers-lost-the-presidency-of-harvard/

[mike_c]

36. of the wealthy, for the wealthy, by the wealthy....

Summers speaks for the plutocracy.

[SDjack]

37. Summers will have to go hat-in-hand to meet with Sen. Warren and beg her not to play

turn-about-is-fair. Her hold on Summer's nomination until it stinks like a rotting fish on the beach would be nice.

[Beacool]

38. Figures, the guy is a jerk.

[Blasphemer]

39. I'm shocked I tell you, shocked! Just say no to Sumners.... nt

[Safetykitten]

40. Just looking at his puss, you can tell he is a giant assclown.

[Judi Lynn]

41. You bet. I see what you mean, after looking for photos. Unbelievable.

[center]



[/center]

[bobthedrummer]

43. Fact check kick-I think Elizabeth Warren would be a fine POTUS n/t