I have a very liberal friend who thinks that most Democrats are weasels, and that includes Barack Obama.  But when I informed her last week that Obama was still considering naming Harvard professor Elizabeth Warren to head a new consumer protection agency, she was delighted and said she would hold off on criticizing the President for, oh, a few minutes possibly if that were to become a fact.

In any event, it was initially reported last night by ABC News (though Bloomberg on Tuesday credited the American Banker as having reported on this on Monday) that the White House has chosen Warren as a special adviser to help set up the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the new agency charged with protecting consumers from abusive lenders (I don't know how my friend feels about this, but the carping continues.  A liberal blogger called  Naked Capitalism says that this move will sideline Warren and the President is making this move to appease the left before the election).

As reported in the Huffington Post by Ryan Grim and Shahien Nasiripour:

The move allows her to act as an interim head of the CFPB and will enable her to begin setting up the agency immediately and prevent the GOP from filibustering her nomination. Warren could serve until President Barack Obama nominates a permanent director to serve the five-year term — a nomination he's not required to make for some time. Obama also could nominate her as the permanent director in the near future, a prospect that has been discussed among top aides, according to a person familiar with White House deliberations. Warren formally will be named as a special adviser reporting directly to Obama, and serving in a similar capacity to Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, later this week.

The CFPB was a cornerstone of Obama's financial reform package and Warren is credited as the intellectual founder of the agency — a proposal she advocated three years ago. The ability of the administration to nominate an acting director to serve while the agency is launched within the Treasury Department was first report by HuffPost in July.

This article appears in Sep 16-22, 2010.