Vacancies Strain White House’s Goals for Economy, © The New York Times, September 10, 2010, by Sewell Chan, excerpt quoted verbatim:

WASHINGTON — President Obama signaled on Friday that he was close to choosing a director for a new consumer bureau, but an array of top jobs that will be crucial to shaping economic policy and financial regulation for the rest of his term remain unfilled.

At a White House news conference, Mr. Obama praised Elizabeth Warren, the Harvard law professor who was the chief proponent of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and is a front-runner to lead it. Calling her “a dear friend” and a “tremendous advocate” for the new agency, the president said he had talked with her but added, “I’m not going to make an official announcement until it’s ready.”Ms. Warren is considered a foe of Wall Street but a favorite of liberals. If she were nominated to the post it could set off a partisan brawl similar to the battles that nearly swamped the Dodd-Frank financial overhaul law Mr. Obama signed in July, which created the bureau.

That position, however, is only one of a half-dozen unfilled presidentially appointed posts that have vast powers over the mortgage market, financial stability and the banking and insurance industries. The seats have been vacant even though the new law directed regulatory agencies to make scores of major decisions that will shape Wall Street and the financial sector for years to come.

Delays in the appointment process — lengthened by Congressional brinksmanship and cumbersome vetting — are not new, and some choices have come quickly. On Friday, the president named Austan D. Goolsbee chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, filling a position that had just opened. But the confluence of vacancies in the economic realm comes at a time of regulatory transformation, a slowing economy and a Republican resurgence. (Mr. Goolsbee, who was previously confirmed as a member of the council, did not need a second Senate confirmation to become chairman.)

The prospect of Republicans making strong gains in Congress in November has complicated the appointment calculation, as nearly all of the unfilled jobs require Senate confirmation.

“There’s a normal attrition around midterm,” said Stuart E. Eizenstat, who was President Jimmy Carter’s chief domestic policy adviser and later President Bill Clinton’s deputy Treasury secretary. “What’s different now is the likelihood of a dramatic change in the composition of Congress, and the fact that the Republicans may use each and every one of these to make an economic point.”

The tight Congressional calendar also means that some of the jobs might go unfilled for months longer.

“It is close to impossible to think that the Senate can take a nomination, hold hearings and confirm the person before the election,” Mr. Eizenstat said. “And getting this done in the postelection session is possible, but very difficult.”

In some cases, the president has put forward names that have not been acted on.

For example, the Federal Reserve’s board of governors, which is considering additional steps to prop up the flagging recovery, has just four of its full complement of seven members. The Senate has yet to confirm three candidates Mr. Obama nominated in April to fill the vacancies.

One factor that has delayed the decision over the consumer post is the fierce opposition of banking and business groups to Ms. Warren, who is chairwoman of the Congressional panel that oversees the 2008 Wall Street bailout. Senator Christopher J. Dodd of Connecticut, the chairman of the Banking Committee, has said she might have trouble being confirmed.

On Friday, Mr. Obama voiced frustration at Senate Republicans for routinely blocking his appointments, “even if I nominate somebody for dogcatcher.”

Pointing to vacant judgeships and unfilled positions at the Department of Homeland Security, he added: “It’s very hard when you’ve got a determined minority in the Senate that insists on a 60-vote filibuster on every single person that we’re trying to confirm.” The Republicans, he said, are “just playing games.”

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What keeps the Democrats from making their case?, OpEdNews, September 10, 2010, by Ralph Nader.

See The midterms: Who’s the ‘Party of No’?, MSNBC First Read, September 9, 2010, by MSNBC, excerpt quoted verbatim:

“The Republican National Committee turned the “party of no” label against Democrats in a new Web video, which clips together several Democrats’ campaign ads showing different members opposing healthcare reform, cap-and-trade legislation, the stimulus bill and other items,” The Hill writes.

Former New York Gov. George Pataki, who now runs the conservative nonprofit group Revere America, yesterday unveiled a seven-figure ad buy (YouTube video), part of the “Pledge to Win” campaign, which will target members of Congress who voted in favor of the health care reform law.

See Did Obama hint he’s going to appoint Elizabeth Warren?, The Washington Post, The Plum Line, September 10, 2010, by Greg Sargent.

See America Still Needs Elizabeth Warren, And The Bank Lobby Is Still Lying About Her, Campaign for America’s Future on Evans Liberal Politics, August 7, 2010, by Zach Carter.

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