Accepting her job as an adviser on the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Elizabeth Warren wrote this on the White House blog:
"When she was 16, my grandmother, Hannie Reed, drove a wagon in the Oklahoma land rush. Her mother had died, so she was up front with her little brothers and sisters bouncing around in the back. When I was growing up, she talked about life on the prairie, about marrying my grandfather and making a living building one-room schoolhouses, about getting wiped out in the Great Depression. She was hit with hard challenges throughout her life, but the moral of her stories was always the same: she would solve her problems one at a time by pulling up her socks and getting to work. "It’s time for all of us to pull up our socks and get to work."
http://www.whitehouse.gov/...
This was the position she wanted; she had sent word to the President that she did not want the permanent Director's position.
"Over the past several weeks, the President and I have had extensive conversations about the vital importance of consumer financial protection," Warren said.
"The President asked me, and I enthusiastically agreed, to serve as an Assistant to the President and Special Advisor to the Secretary of the Treasury on the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. He has also asked me to take on the job to get the new CFPB started—right now. The President and I are committed to the same vision on CFPB, and I am confident that I will have the tools I need to get the job done."
And maybe the money quote:
"The new law creates a chance to put a tough cop on the beat and provide real accountability and oversight of the consumer credit market. The time for hiding tricks and traps in the fine print is over. This new bureau is based on the simple idea that if the playing field is level and families can see what’s going on, they will have better tools to make better choices."
Barney Frank has stated that this is the job Elizabeth Warren wanted. She wasn't interested in the five-year term of the permanent director, and Frank carried that message to the White House. TrahmalG's Diary
So, the President again does the right thing, in the right way. Professor Warren is an eloquent spokesperson for consumers, and having her front-and-center is going to be good for Democrats.