This is Adam Levitin at Credit Slips. Elizabeth Warren was a contributor there at one time.
I testified as a Minority witness today at a House Government Oversight Committee hearing on the CFPB. It was a rather extraordinary hearing, not for the substance of the hearing, which was just the latest installment in the Elizabeth Warren witchhunt, but for the exchange between Professor Warren and the Subcommittee Chairman, Patrick McHenry, regarding the scheduling of the hearing. It has strange echoes of Joe Wilson’s “You Lie!” outburst.
He continues:
Whatever happened with the scheduling of Professor Warren’s testimony, let me just say that the Majority committee staff’s handling of the scheduling in regards to me was less than exemplary. At some point this morning, the hearing was moved up by 45 minutes and moved to another hearing room. Majority committee staff, which handles the invitations and scheduling, never bothered to notify me of either of these changes. They did, however, send an email to all of the Majority witnesses. I was lucky to get word of the change from non-official channels. But otherwise, I might well have been late to the hearing.
It was probably just coincidence that only a Minority witness wasn’t told of the schedule and room changes. Irrespective, this is no way to run a Congressional committee.
Class acts and professionalism all around. No wonder the public intellectuals disapproved of that shrill she-monster Nancy Pelosi. So partisan!
Meanwhile, rational people are finding out that they were lied to by conservative lunatics, and discovering that Warren is not, actually, “the anti-Christ”:
The head of the Oklahoma Banker’s Association — a one-time Elizabeth Warren skeptic who believed she was “akin to the Antichrist” — is now asking President Obama to provide her a recess appointment to direct the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
“I write to encourage you to appoint Elizabeth Warren as the first Director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and to do so with a ‘recess appointment’ at the first opportunity,” wrote Roger Beverage — President and CEO of the OBA — in a May 19 letter to Obama, provided to TPM. “In light of the action taken by the forty-four senators who have stated they will oppose any nominee to serve as Director of the new Bureau unless certain changes are made to the Bureau’s structure, I encourage you to wait no longer and give Elizabeth a recess appointment before the July 21st transfer date.”
“[A]s an advocate for “banks, I’ve not always agreed with some of her statements,” Beverage wrote. “I have come to know her since her current duties began last September, and I am convinced she clearly recognizes the importance of community banks and small credit unions to the nation’s economic recovery and how they fit into her vision to protect American consumers and their families. … In my view she is far and away the best qualified person to lead it as it begins its historic mission.”
Yutsano
Let’s face it: Elizabeth Warren comes across as a wise grandma for the country. Plus she just exudes a certain warmth while at the same time demonstrating extreme competence in her field. I don’t know if I’d rather have a warm cookie or an economics lecture from her.
Tom Hilton
Soshulist! Real Americans back the mega-enormo-banks over those commie small-to-medium operations.
Bulworth
Indeed.
maya
Majority committee members are still smarting over not being invited to Harry and Kate’s nuptials. Their minority witness gamesmanship is entirely understandable and justified.
kay
@Yutsano:
It’s funny, because I first encountered her work in a bankruptcy casebook, and even there she was interesting and stood out. I recalled reading her piece there when I next heard her name.
It’s the only thing I remember from that book :)
Zifnab
Perhaps Roger Beverage should be directing his missives to Senators Coburn and Inhofe. :-p
I’m tired of Red State Republican businessmen running to Democrat Presidents and Senators to do the sane thing while their own representatives bounce across TV screaming their heads off. Oklahoma didn’t vote for Obama. Oklahoma’s Congressional delegation fights him at every turn. Don’t go crying to Blue-State Obama because your Red State Reps are off the chain.
Yevgraf (fka Michael)
I got the best OT of all times – a set of FR-recommended “Dream Team” cabinet members for Sarah Palin’s administration.
The wars with North Korea, Iran, Syria, Venezuela and Mexico would be well underway by January 22, 2013, and groundbreaking on Mexican and Liberal internment camps could begin for real.
Enjoy.
freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2725371/posts
The commentary between the noms is great, too.
Han's Solo
You see, this is the problem with the GOP strategy of trying to turn everyone you disagree with into some terrifying monster; monsters are scary and Elizabeth Warren (and Nancy Pelosi) are just not scary people.
Now I get that much of the conservative base consists of compulsive bed wetters that beg to be mislead, but independents tend to be made of sterner stuff. Most elections, especially in Presidential election years, are won in the middle. The more time and energy the GOP spends trying to morph Warren into the boogey woman, the more they make themselves look like morons to those that don’t drink their cool aid.
Bulworth
The real problem is that Warren, and Obama, and all these Democrat soshulists act like there was some kind of financial crisis in the past few years…
cleek
i blame Obama
Roger Moore
@Yevgraf (fka Michael):
Are you sure that’s not a piece of liberal performance art?
daveNYC
@Yevgraf (fka Michael): Giuliani and Pickens are bad, but at least non-crazy, choices. Everything else is a complete clown filled clusterfuck.
Yevgraf (fka Michael)
God, its a treasure trove of wingularity over there today.
freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2725365/posts
These tards still don’t get the notion that American Jews want to see American remain safe for Jews, and have no intention whatsoever of expatriating to Israel.
El Cid
This is weird given the polite, purposeful, efficient, and congenial atmosphere created by the Republican triumvirate 2003-2006.
Not once did they do things like move schedules around, or cut people off, or shut down microphones and lights and such.
They were role models of bipartisanship, and our pundits and editors were sorely disappointed when Speaker Pelosi set such a terrible example.
Rob
McHenry actually tried the Cornelius Fudge secret re-rescheduling gambit?
Yutsano
@kay: So bankruptcy law is definitely not your thing. Awesome. I don’t blame you. Bankruptcy is a great excuse for me to kick the can down the road at work and let Burnsy deal with them.
@Bulworth: THERE WAS?? How come no one told me this??
kay
@Zifnab:
True. I do wonder if they ever get discredited, with lie after lie after lie.
Isn’t there some tipping point? Or do they just produce enough Young Conservatives to replace the escapees/refugees?
Yutsano
@kay: They just rail on about Jeebus and abortion and the ickiness of teh ghey and their backwoods voters eat it up. Simple tribalism at its finest.
MonkeyBoy
Does anybody have any pointers to rational reasons Republicans oppose Warren or the CFPB (other that unfounded cries of soshulizm)?
Or is the general Republican feeling that if people are so stupid as to get ripped off by banks or caught up in a huge amount of debt than they deserve it and it is good for the economy?
Neldob
Let us all now write postcards and letters to the various souls in congress, if souls indeed exist there, to support EW. If there is one thing I learned from Nixonland it’s the importance of writing letters, lots and lots. Bury them in a blizzard of em.
kay
@El Cid:
Sherrod Brown used to give a speech when he was runing for Senate (he was then in the House) where he told the story of how they got the prescription drug give-away through.
They’re thugs, basically. No wonder the punditry were all yearning for comity and a strong male hand to guide us during Pelosi’s reign of terror.
Roger Moore
@kay:
Because they’re members of the correct tribe. You can’t seriously expect conservatives to vote for weird minority loving liberals just because they’d enact good policies, can you?
PurpleGirl
@Yutsano: How about both the cookie and the lecture? You could drink milk and eat the cookie while she talked.
Han's Solo
@MonkeyBoy: Do you want rational reasons or the truth?
My understanding is that they hate the CFPB because their donors tell them to, and Elizabeth Warren is the face of the CFPB, therefore they hate Elizabeth Warren.
So the question becomes how do the GOP congresscritters get their barely sentient and intellectually stunted followers to hate Warren to? They can’t tell the truth about what the CFPB does, or is meant to do, because Wall Street and the Banks are about as popular as one of Paris Hilton’s herpes sores. So they attempt character assassination on Elizabeth Warren and use every tool at their disposal.
Yutsano
@PurpleGirl: Holy cwap. I would be in some weird state of Nirvana at that point. Especially if she baked the cookies.
Roger Moore
@MonkeyBoy:
Because she would prevent the banksters from doing WTFTW. She actually thinks that banks should follow the rules like little people. That would be offensive to the Republicans even if they weren’t accepting massive campaign contributions from the banksters.
Villago Delenda Est
Sure. Just a coincidence.
I have no doubt at all, without pretty solid evidence to the contrary, that this was not a deliberate move at the personal and premeditated direction of the rabid shitstain named Patrick McHenry.
Tom Hilton
@Yevgraf (fka Michael): Joe Walsh should really meet the author of that FDL “educate the Afro-Americans” thread. They have a lot in common.
Martin
@Yutsano:
She looks just like my mom. Similar temperament too. I couldn’t help but be a fan from day 1.
PurpleGirl
@Yutsano: LOL.
Frankensteinbeck (The ex-Uloborus)
@Zifnab:
Come on. No snark, good and decent people live in red states and have a right to be outraged at the horrors perpetrated on them by the lunatics in office.
However, if you voted Republican you should at LEAST be required to take off your hat and preface any request with ‘I know I was a dumbass, but…’
Villago Delenda Est
@Frankensteinbeck (The ex-Uloborus):
As our giant housecat terrorized host has frequently done.
Roger Moore
@Frankensteinbeck (The ex-Uloborus):
I don’t think it’s too much to ask that people from red states ask their own obstructionist legislators to stop being assholes and do what’s right for the country. I’m fucking tired of people treating Republican intransigence as a given that has to be worked around, rather than treating it as a deliberately obnoxious strategy that could and should be changed. It’s as if the Republicans are a bunch of small children whose inability to behave like constructive grownups isn’t really their fault, and that’s bullshit. If your elected representatives in Washington are going against your interests, don’t just work around them; call them out on it.
Frankensteinbeck (The ex-Uloborus)
@Roger Moore:
My senators are McConnell and Rand Paul. Other than voting against them – which I did and will again – what am I supposed to do? I don’t want to draw their attention to what I think are important issues because that will make them even MORE determined to fight against the Democrat’s plans.
gex
@Villago Delenda Est: Yes, but he also stopped voting for the trainwreck. We’re talking about folks who keep voting for the wreckage and only when it affects them do they come running to the Dems to fix it.
Capri
I first became aware of Elizabeth Warren years ago when I read the book she co-wrote with her daughter, All Your Worth: the Ultimate Lifetime Money Plan.
I originally listened to it as a book on tape that I got out of the local library(I drive a great deal many weeks and enjoy listening to books on CD as I drive). It was so good I bought the on paper version.
If you struggle with money and budgeting, or just want to read a common sense discussion on personnel finance, the book is fantastic. It helped me turn my life around and get on sound financial footing. It is extremely practical and real life based, with no religious or moral overtones. I recommend it to everyone.
When her name came up a few years ago, it took me a while to realize it was THAT Elizabeth Warren.
Poopyman
@Martin:
Ahem. Am I the only one that finds her just -a little bit- … hot?
And as far as @Han’s Solo:
The second question is answered by the first: They hate because they’re told to. Republican politics is always aimed at the lizard brain. That’s why us liberals who always attempt a reasoned response are doomed from the start.
Montysano
@Roger Moore:
As Yutsano noted upthread, the GOP/rightwing has gone completely tribal. In that paradigm, it matters not what is right, or best, or smart. The Tribe is right, all else is The Other and must be defeated/killed at all costs. Good times…
NobodySpecial
Remember kids, when this was first brought up, it didn’t need her to run it as long as she set it up, we were told.
Montysano
@Poopyman:
Nossir, you are certainly not alone.
SFAW
I don’t think “hot” is the best choice of words, but in general, she’s a bit of all right.
And re: the hatred (or whatever) directed toward her: I think another part of the equation is that her appointment – well, actually her performance in the job – would be a big win for Obama, and the Rethugs would rather chew their own arms off than let Obama get anything that might be considered as such.
trollhattan
@SFAW:
Jon Stewart told her on one appearance he wanted to make out with her. I guess she has that “certain something.”
The attacks on Warren seem similar to attacks on Obama, wherein they’re so clearly untrue. Warren obviously has technical mastery of the subject matter and is passionately on the consumer’s side, so of course–she’s unqualified and the devil’s spawn.
“That mister Jordan, he has poor basketball fundamentals and is not much of a leader.” “Too many notes, Mozart.”
WereBear
Rational reasons? Harharharhar!
You slay me, you really do!
Gravie
Changing meeting rooms and meeting times, and failing to give minority members adequate notification, were exactly the tactics used in Wisconsin during the collective bargaining votes. It’s the Republican MO to disenfranchise their opponents.
Poopyman
@trollhattan:
Yeah. “Brainz”. She’s articulate and expressive, and has a quick wit. That goes a long way with me. Plus, she’s not so hard on the eyes.
Poopyman
@Gravie: Also in the Pittsburgh hearings on fracking, the video of which went viral a week or two ago.
SFAW
Yeah, having someone competent in a position of power is antithetical to Rethug ideology.
After watching the vid of McHenry being a dickhead, I kinda wish she had responded to him, rather than with the evident shock, by saying something like “Ya know, if someone I respected said something like that to me, I’d be tempted to slap the shit outta them for being a fucking dink. However, Your Excellency, since the amount of respect I have for you is about the same as the chance I have of dunking over Hakeem, I’ll cut you some slack, asshole. But only once.”
SFAW
No, No, NO! !
It’s the Dems ‘n’ darkies who do the voter fraud thing. The Rethugs are just trying to ensure that other people follow the (unwritten and ever changing but designed to keep them in power) rules.
chris
Semi O/T but a great commment at Brad Delongs. Seems as if I have seen his handle comment here. (Glen Tomkins?) He is speaking about the bankers and how they are running off the cliff-
ETA- everything up to the word “else” should’ve been blockquoted..blockquote virgin here folks
El Cid
@kay: From the wayback machine, a device generally held to be a terrorist weapon by our nation’s billion dollar news media and our brilliant punditariat:
El Cid
@chris: Even more O/T but interesting (to me at least) contextual point about the “opiate of” phrase.
Karl Marx used it the phrase [translated as] “Religion is the opiate of the masses,” right? And it’s just a broad swipe at how silly religion is, and how naive the masses are who follow this narcotic as an answer, right?
Not quite.
It was Marx showing a great deal of empathy with the masses.
People really did have terrible injuries and diseases and such. With excruciating pain going along with them, as they do today.
Society’s better off could actually afford an effective pain reliever in opium compounds.
The masses had nothing. They didn’t have the money to ease their actual, physical pain.
That’s where the analogy comes from. It’s as if aspiring were fantastically expensive and the only common pain reliever available. Then it would be “religion is the aspirin of the masses.”
Marx used the analogy but went further; he emphasized that there really was suffering, but people saw no other options.
I’m not religious in the slightest, don’t get me wrong.
But he’s not portraying it as a silly affectation the masses are tricked into cheaply.
The people really do have to bear awful conditions. “The heart of a heartless world” and “the soul of soulless conditions” indicates a great degree of sympathy for peoples’ use of the only relief of suffering they can find and afford.
It just happens to be the wrong one; but it isn’t about robbing the people of religion, but superseding it by making their actual — real — conditions better.
So that suffering doesn’t drive them to a false, but completely understandable, answer in religion.
[None of which is to suggest that you were using it in a particular way. Just felt like pointing this interesting, but never examined, context out.]
Jay in Oregon
@Rob:
I always think of the public notice from Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy:
SFAW
Although the scenario was the same, the Rethugs are more like the Vogons than like the petty bureaucrats Dent encountered. Except the Vogons at least had better poetry.
Paul in KY
@Yevgraf (fka Michael): Thanks for exerpting it. I wouldn’t give Free Republic a page hit if my dick was on fire & going there was necessary to put it out.
Paul in KY
@Frankensteinbeck (The ex-Uloborus): I didn’t know you were in KY also, too. Cool. Congrats on your new book.
MonkeyBoy
@WereBear:
By “rational reasons” I meant some argument explicitly presented like say claiming the CFPB is illegal under the Commerce Clause of the 5th amendment. I’m not asking that the reason makes sense or is valid, just that some explicit rationalization be given.
Paul in KY
@Montysano: Count me in on that!
SFAW
The ruling junta need not explain itself to peons such as yourself. They would also like to see your identification papers, to make sure Alles in Ordnung, bitte.
chris
@El Cid: Very interesting, and certainly provides the missing context to that oft quoted saying. I have never looked into the context behind that saying. I just assumed (like most) that Marx was getting his “godless commie” on.
Rob
Jay – Thanks for that, especially on Towel Day + 1.
Meg
Why do all the GOPers sound like the villains from Harry Potter.
In this particular case, it reminds me of the hearing for Harry in book 5, where they did not tell Professor Dumbledore the last hour change of time and location. But he got there a lot earlier and learned the change, so their plot was foiled.