President Barack Obama announces his nomination of Richard Cordray as Director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, July 18, 2011. (Larry Downing/Reuters)
Senate Republicans have vowed, en masse, to
filibuster any nomination to head up the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the agency created in the Dodd-Frank financial reform legislation to give, well, a modicum of financial protection to consumers.
Recognizing this fight for the very real populist issue it is, President Obama is pushing the nomination of Richard Cordray this week, with a vote expected on Thursday.
The president will be “aggressively” campaigning for Richard Cordray’s confirmation ahead of a likely Dec. 8 Senate vote, White House spokesman Josh Earnest told reporters yesterday. [...]
In July, Obama nominated Cordray, who was Ohio’s Attorney General from 2009 to 2011. He rose to national prominence when he sued GMAC Mortgage LLC and its corporate parent, Ally Financial Inc., accusing them of using fraudulent affidavits in court cases over foreclosures in the state. He also managed litigation against financial firms including American International Group (AIG) and Bank of America Corp.
Republicans will continue to filibuster this nomination, not being at all embarrassed by the fact that this fight pits them entirely on the side of Wall Street. Which sets Obama up for what Politico is hyperbolically calling a nuclear option, but really is just a run-of-the-mill recess appointment.
When asked whether congressional Republicans would keep Congress in session over the holidays, House Speaker John Boehner’s spokesman Brendan Buck told POLITICO: "We'll see"
But this winter, Congress must adjourn—at least briefly—to inaugurate the new session of Congress. Theodore Roosevelt used such a brief intersession adjournment to ram through an appointment during his administration.
Plenty of presidents since the first Roosevelt have used recess appointments to circumvent Congress. The last president, George W. Bush, made 171 of them, in contrast to just 28 in Obama's first term.
A recess appointment of Cordray would hardly be exercising a "nuclear option," but it would be a smart one in this case. Continuing the fight to keep the CFPB strong on behalf of the average American consumer is just smart politics. And it might also just help out the 99 percent.
