Obama adviser tells Congress she has more important things to do

posted at 8:45 am on May 25, 2011 by Ed Morrissey

Remember when Democrats screeched about an “imperial presidency” when George W. Bush asked Congress for authorization for military action, and when he fired executive appointees in the Department of Justice?  Good times, good times.  In the past few weeks, we’ve been treated to a new war without the President bothering to check with Congress at all, and now one of his key appointees telling Congress that she has better things to do than answer their questions:

White House adviser Elizabeth Warren, in a heated House hearing Tuesday, touted the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau as a vital new financial-markets cop while Republican lawmakers slammed the agency as a powerful financial regulator with too few checks and balances.

The Harvard professor also rejected one House Republican’s accusation that she gave misleading testimony to Congress in March and was lying about her schedule.

Her schedule?  Actually, it was Warren who accused the committee of reneging on an agreement that they would end the hearing in one hour.  Warren claimed that they had agreed to work around her schedule, and that she had important meetings to attend:

Mr. McHenry and Ms. Warren also got into a spat over how long the hearing should run. Ms. Warren said the committee had agreed to end the 1:15 p.m. hearing at 2:15 p.m. so she could make it to a meeting.

The lawmaker accused her of making up the agreement.

“You might want to have a conversation with your staff,” Ms. Warren replied.

Really?  What meeting might Warren have that would be more important than a Congressional hearing into the activities of her agency?  Maybe she needed to take a call from her stockbroker.

I’m sorry Ms. Warren feels inconvenienced, but perhaps she might want to take a civics course to understand the separation of powers and checks and balances in the federal system.  Congress gets to hold hearings on operations in the executive branch, and they’re not required to put a time limit on their inquiries, especially a one-hour limit that barely gets by the opening remarks in most committee hearings.  If Warren doesn’t like being held accountable to the legislature and to the people, well … she’s in the right administration, apparently.

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She had to catch the Oprah finale

pedestrian on May 25, 2011 at 11:33 AM

Michelle was calling for hair advice.

Roy Rogers on May 25, 2011 at 11:36 AM

I hardly think scanning Match.com for a potential man, that would put up with your sorry arse is viable excuse, Mzzzzzzz.Warren.

capejasmine on May 25, 2011 at 11:37 AM

Michelle was calling for hair advice.

Roy Rogers on May 25, 2011 at 11:36 AM

Everytime I see a pic of that hair, I keep thinking…..There’s something about Michelle! LOL

capejasmine on May 25, 2011 at 11:40 AM

She DOES look like Rumsfeld in a bad wig!

Roy Rogers on May 25, 2011 at 11:41 AM

Warren is a particular interest of mine. I read the article in Harvard that she wrote in 2007 calling for a Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Now at this time I had been doing policy work in the financial services industry for over 12 years, and am a Harvard alumna, and I had never heard of this woman. Her article was insipid and read more like a Kennedy School master’s thesis than an actual policy proposal. I laighed it off as just another silly academic pontificating and prescribing ridiculous solutions to non-problems (at this time she was arguing for the CFPB to curb so-called “predatory lending,” a problem which was vastly overblown by liberals.) The notion that she somehow has been “right” about the causes of the financial meltdown is more like a case of the rooster taking credit for the sunrise.

The fact that Obama and his crowd were so taken in by this charlatan have always spoken volumes to me. I cannot fathom why she has become such a hero to the Lefties. She knows how to spout all the Soros/CRL talking points very smoothly, but that does not mean she really knows what she is talking about.

rockmom on May 25, 2011 at 11:32 AM

Very interesting. Thanks again for the insight.

This sort of undeserved promotion happens in every field. Each time it’s a result of not what you know, but who you know. So, who exactly does she know? Soros??

conservative pilgrim on May 25, 2011 at 11:47 AM

So, who exactly does she know? Soros??

conservative pilgrim on May 25, 2011 at 11:47 AM

Soros, Piven and SEIU Working to Destroy Americas Financial System to Create Revolution

Elizabeth Warren at 2:52 in video……

Roy Rogers on May 25, 2011 at 11:52 AM

Another Obama unelected looney toon Goon. 2012 seems so far away at times.

SANTA on May 25, 2011 at 11:55 AM

Wasn’t it nice of the Brits to play “My Country ‘Tis Of Thee” while Barry roasted the Queen?

ROFLMAO!!!!

Roy Rogers on May 25, 2011 at 10:12 AM

You do know that “My Country ‘Tis of Thee” is the same tune as “God save the Queen”?

shick on May 25, 2011 at 12:02 PM

Revolutions Uncut….

Raw video.

Key West Reader on May 25, 2011 at 12:09 PM

You do know that “My Country ‘Tis of Thee” is the same tune as “God save the Queen”?

shick on May 25, 2011 at 12:02 PM

You do know that “America the Beautiful” is the name of the song and Americans used the original British tune?

A thread winner on another thread expressed it best: “Obama thought they were playing “America the Beautiful” so he had no reason to respect the playing of the song.”

Roy Rogers on May 25, 2011 at 12:19 PM

Socialist Economics: Elizabeth Warren in Her Own Words

Q: Are you anti-debt?

EW: No. Debt can be enormously valuable.

So long as it’s someone else’s money.

Roy Rogers on May 25, 2011 at 12:26 PM

This sort of undeserved promotion happens in every field. Each time it’s a result of not what you know, but who you know. So, who exactly does she know? Soros??

conservative pilgrim on May 25, 2011 at 11:47 AM

Indirectly, yes. Her CFPB idea was latched onto by the Soros-funded Center for Responsible Lending and she was promoted by them as its champion. She also got to know Barney Frank very well when she was still at Harvard. She has been a favorite of his for a long time. That is how the CFPB got into the legislation.

rockmom on May 25, 2011 at 12:30 PM

she needs to go revise the Good Faith Estimate and Truth in Lending Disclosre used by mortgage originators again…this will make the third ‘revision’ in the past 3 years. Each revision costs our industy millions of dollars and bogs down an already weak mortgage industry. They could not do more to harm our economy if they tried…or perhaps that’s exactly what thier goal is.

DrW on May 25, 2011 at 12:45 PM

They could not do more to harm our economy if they tried…or perhaps that’s exactly what thier goal is.
DrW on May 25, 2011 at 12:45 PM

BINGO!

LegendHasIt on May 25, 2011 at 1:02 PM

Breaking news Tornado on the ground heading to Kansas City Kansas Overland Park I435, I70, I35 I470!!!

bluefox on May 25, 2011 at 12:59 PM

bluefox on May 25, 2011 at 1:03 PM

Congress should learn its place. She is an academic after all.

pat on May 25, 2011 at 1:07 PM

More important things to do huh? I would arrange for her to have lots of free time to do as she pleases! Hunting for a new job in the private sector should be one!

GFW on May 25, 2011 at 1:13 PM

mmmmmm, I guess she is busy after all.

Soros, Piven and SEIU Working to Destroy Americas Financial System to Create Revolution

Elizabeth Warren at 2:52 in video……

Roy Rogers on May 25, 2011 at 11:52 AM

PappyD61 on May 25, 2011 at 1:18 PM

You do know that “America the Beautiful” is the name of the song and Americans used the original British tune?

A thread winner on another thread expressed it best: “Obama thought they were playing “America the Beautiful” so he had no reason to respect the playing of the song.”

Roy Rogers on May 25, 2011 at 12:19 PM

We were both wrong but put together we got it.

That comment from the other thread is funny.

shick on May 25, 2011 at 1:19 PM

Roy Rogers on May 25, 2011 at 12:19 PM

Just fyi, but “My Country, ‘Tis of Thee” (“America”) and “America the Beautiful” are two different compositions.

“My Country, ‘Tis of Thee”, also known as “America”, is an American patriotic song, whose lyrics were written by Samuel Francis Smith. The melody is that of the British national anthem, “God Save the Queen”, although Smith encountered it by way of a German adaptation. The song served as a de facto national anthem of the United States before the adoption of “The Star-Spangled Banner” as the official anthem.
non-academic, but still good reference”

“America the Beautiful” lyrics were written by Katharine Lee Bates and the music composed by church organist and choirmaster Samuel A. Ward.

Bates originally wrote the words as a poem, Pikes Peak, first published in the Fourth of July edition of the church periodical The Congregationalist in 1895. At that time, the poem was titled America for publication.

Ward had originally written the music, Materna, for the 19th century hymn O Mother dear, Jerusalem in 1882. Ward’s music combined with the Bates poem was first published in 1910 and titled America the Beautiful.
same reference

IrishEyes on May 25, 2011 at 1:29 PM

A thread winner on another thread expressed it best: “Obama thought they were playing “America the Beautiful” so he had no reason to respect the playing of the song.”

Roy Rogers on May 25, 2011 at 12:19 PM

Yeah, that comment was the best! And, perhaps, more to the point.

IrishEyes on May 25, 2011 at 1:31 PM

… the separation of powers and checks and balances in the federal system …

She is NOT the director of the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Obama never sent an appointment request to the Senate. Obama has defacto installed this UNVETTED HACK to a position that is subordinate to an unfilled director position.

It would not surprise me to see her claim EXECUTIVE PRIVELEDGE and never appear again!

Meanwhile in related news, Chucky Schumer wants to remove hundreds of ‘subordinate’ positions from Senate confirmation.

Freddy on May 25, 2011 at 1:40 PM

Defund her. Now.

J.E. Dyer on May 25, 2011 at 2:01 PM

If anyone has a link to the Congressman accusing her of giving misleading testimony, I for one would love to see it or read a transcript.

I am sick and tired of Obama’s people perjuring themselves in congressional hearings, and disgusted that they usually aren’t called out for it. It is a g*&&$%# federal felony to lie under oath in a congressional hearing.

Now, I don’t expect the Holder-led DOJ to do anything about it. But at the very least, please call these scumbags out for the stinking liars they are.

novaculus on May 25, 2011 at 2:24 PM

What an arrogant person she is. With an undergraduate degree in psychology, and absolutely no experience whatsoever in financial markets except for some articles written about them, she thinks she is qualified to reorganize them and tell banks how to operate. This entire Bureau idea came from one short article she wrote in Harvard’s alumni magazine in 2007. It was silly then and it is silly now. She is so full of herself it is ridiculous. Probably second only to the President himself in elitism, arrogance, and overestimation of her own talents.

I am told by people in the know in DC that this new Bureau is not hiring anyone except for Warren’s cronies and sycophants from Harvard Law and those in the Tim Geithner/Goldman Sachs orbit. People with real qualifications and skills are being laughed out of the office. Wonderful. We can look forward to decades of screwed up financial institutions and oceans of pointless new regulations and forms.

Sunlight is the best disinfectant, and we need Congress to keep shining it on this horrible woman and her staff until they are gone. I hope she does think she is great enough to go back to Massachusetts and run against Scott Brown, he will cut her to ribbons.

rockmom on May 25, 2011 at 8:53 AM

The entire Obama Administration, as also what’s occurring on the Supreme Court (specifically, Kagan refusing to recuse herself on cases on which she is required to do so)…

…this has all added up by now to a group of people WORKING OUTSIDE AND AGAINST our Constitution. Separation of powers? Don’t bother them with such. Recusal from cases about which they were/are involved in developing an oppositional opinion? Don’t bother them, you’re not smart.

On and on and on it goes, Obama using Executive Orders in non-Constitutional if not anti-Constitutional (and dictatorial, thereby) methods and intents…

SOMEONE in our government HAS TO bring these people to bear. Clearly, they’re not working to uphold, protect and defend our Constitution but to implement and proliferate THEIR PARTICULAR POLITICAL GOALS that are not, for the most part, even Constitutionally qualified.

Like, say, Obama in the Presidency (just had to include that.)

It all does call to question just who is or can contest if not contend with ‘forces’ as in, groups of people, who are in the government, using their privilege as such to oppose the Constitution. An invading hoarde of ‘ideas’ gone insane, in other words, madness in Constitutional terms.

Malpractice? Treason?

Lourdes on May 25, 2011 at 3:11 PM

And I do believe it is far past time that Harvard University is held accountable for subterfuge. Clearly an institutionalization of counter-Constitutional planning.

Lourdes on May 25, 2011 at 3:14 PM

Shrill witch, go get me a cup of coffee and a sandwich.

gbear on May 25, 2011 at 3:36 PM

Are they homely because they’re liberal or are they liberal because they’re homely?

Buttercup on May 25, 2011 at 3:57 PM

Harvard took a big credibility hit last year, when they busted a student who had not only cheated his way in, but had also cheated through almost 4 years of school there.

He was busted for plagiarism, and he was from Joe Biden’s home state.

Del Dolemonte on May 25, 2011 at 10:28 AM

Harvard Law School also lost any shred of credibility when two of its Professors (Laurence H. Tribe and Charles Ogletree)were busted for plagiarism within the same month and were then protected by then-Harvard Law School Dean and now-Obama-appointed Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan and then-Harvard President Larry Summers.

Tribe’s transgression had come to light only after he had publicly defended his colleague Ogletree, who just three weeks earlier had publicly apologized for the unauthorized heist of verbiage from Yale scholar Jack Balkin’s book, What Brown v. Board of Education Should Have Said, and the stashing of it, nearly word for word, in his own book, All Deliberate Speed.

Appalled by Tribe’s hypocrisy, an anonymous tipster alerted conservative scholar Joseph Bottum, who penned a damning 5,000-word article for The Weekly Standard, which revealed the extent of Tribe’s theft and resulted in Tribe’s halfhearted mea culpa.

In reviewing the case, Kagan and then-Harvard President Larry Summers faced an obvious challenge: Ogletree was a black star on a faculty often criticized for being overly white. Even more problematic, Tribe was the superstar of the judicial left.

http://www.americanthinker.com/2010/05/kagan_obama_and_the_harvard_le.html

Harvard Law School is most likely where President Obama learned the finer points of plagiarism since he was a Research Assistant for Professor Laurence Tribe. Professor Charles Ogletree was also a mentor for Obama.

That plagiarism on this scale is condoned by Harvard Law School calls the reputation of the entire Harvard Law School faculty into question.

wren on May 25, 2011 at 4:21 PM

Here’s the video of Warren telling Congress to go f themselves. It’s quite disgusting.

Lance Murdock on May 25, 2011 at 1:45 PM

You’re right, it is quite disgusting. She is.

“We had an agreement, we had an agreement…” Warren repeated, lying — no “agreement” was made between Warren and the Committee, which the Congress continually attempted to clarify, eventually confronting Warren’s preposterous false statement in that regard. At which, she was ‘shocked and awed’ to be confronted!

This is preposterously immature, manipulative and dishonest behavior by Warren. She clearly is not equipped for any Cabinet position, especially since she appears clueless as to Congressional command of how they conduct hearings, and when.

Lourdes on May 25, 2011 at 4:27 PM

Warren would ONLY show if it was limited to 1 HOUR?? and just what was more important?? time for a Freedom of Information suit on Warren’s Calendar, pronto.

mathewsjw on May 25, 2011 at 4:28 PM

Warren would ONLY show if it was limited to 1 HOUR?? and just what was more important?? time for a Freedom of Information suit on Warren’s Calendar, pronto.

mathewsjw on May 25, 2011 at 4:28 PM

Watching her ridiculous performance — indignity, indignity, she’s indignant! — before Congress I found myself wondering, also, just who that ‘next appointment’ was with. She seemed awfully horrified that she might be required by Congress to MISS A MEETING, so just who was that meeting with? George Soros? A Doomsday Clock? A great big red button that reads, “Reset”…what?

Lourdes on May 25, 2011 at 5:28 PM

Harvard Law School is most likely where President Obama learned the finer points of plagiarism since he was a Research Assistant for Professor Laurence Tribe. Professor Charles Ogletree was also a mentor for Obama.

That plagiarism on this scale is condoned by Harvard Law School calls the reputation of the entire Harvard Law School faculty into question.

wren on May 25, 2011 at 4:21 PM

“But they’re Harvard Law School!”

/crr6

Del Dolemonte on May 25, 2011 at 6:20 PM

Harvard took a big credibility hit last year, when they busted a student who had not only cheated his way in, but had also cheated through almost 4 years of school there.

Del Dolemonte on May 25, 2011 at 10:28 AM

Another Harvard Law Review editor?

Roy Rogers on May 25, 2011 at 10:31 AM

For those who missed it a year ago-the US media did a pretty good job of keeping this quiet, but the UK media had a field day with it as this clown was trying to become a Rhodes Scholar.

A student who conned his way into Harvard University by doctoring test scores, copying essays and forging letters of recommendation, has been given a ten-year probationary sentence.

Adam Wheeler, 24, earlier pleaded to multiple counts of larceny, identity fraud, and other charges.

The con artist was also ordered to pay back $45,806 to Harvard for the prize money, grants, and financial aid he received by weaving an intricate web of lies to get into the Boston school.

According to the Boston Globe, Harvard began investigating Wheeler after a professor who was reviewing his application for a Rhodes and Fulbright Scholarship realised he had plagiarised another student’s work.

The university discovered Wheeler had forged his Harvard transcript to make himself a straight-A student for his scholarship application.

Rest of story

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1339444/Student-lied-way-Harvard-given-probation-ordered-pay-45-000-prize-money.html

Del Dolemonte on May 25, 2011 at 6:26 PM

She looks like a poster child for Androgyny

IlonaE on May 25, 2011 at 8:14 PM

There’s not enough bleach in the world to clean house properly after this rogue administration is vanquished.

hillbillyjim on May 25, 2011 at 11:15 PM

Why is it that NO ONE associated with the White House and its economic team has a shred of private sector experience?

Not Barack Obama,
Not Joe Biden,
Not Timothy Geithner,
Not Christina Romer,
Not Larry Summers,
Not Elizabeth Warren,
Not Austan Goolsbee …

Since the private sector accounts for what, 80% of the jobs in the country, why would we expect people with no private sector experience to be able to figure out how to improve things for the private sector?

And people wonder why unemployment remains so high!

furytrader on May 25, 2011 at 11:34 PM

Also, kudos to rockmom for giving some good background on this story.

furytrader on May 25, 2011 at 11:37 PM

furytrader,

Also, kudos to rockmom for giving some good background on this story.

Hear, hear.

Mike Honcho on May 26, 2011 at 2:38 AM

Cut off the department funding until she answers the congress, for as long as they want.
Days, weeks I hope.

docjohn52 on May 26, 2011 at 10:07 AM

If I were Rep. McHenry, it would’ve been, “Look, b!tch…”

Ward Cleaver on May 26, 2011 at 11:16 AM

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