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A battle is brewing in Washington, pitting Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner against Democrats in Congress, labor unions, and consumer advocates. With the passage of the Financial Reform Act came a mandate to create a new Consumer Protection Agency. The agency would generally be responsible for protecting consumers against predatory lending practices. Obama has touted its creation as one of the most important pieces of the new reform bill. But many say its potential to create real change hinges on the person who leads it. There is an expectation that Obama will nominate Elizabeth Warren, a Harvard professor whose ideas on financial regulation have been heavily used and cited by his administration. Warren was appointed to oversee the Congressional Oversight Panel in 2008, and her unusually fierce advocacy on the behalf of consumers has won her strong support from many on the Left. On four occasions she has grilled Timothy Geithner on the Treasury’s role in the Wall Street Bailouts, including the failure of the administration’s foreclosure prevention plan. Since news of Warren’s potential nomination surfaced Geithner has not publicly endorsed her, and Democratic Senator Chris Dodd has publicly doubted whether she is “confirmable”. This potential opposition has galvanized an effort to convince Geithner, and President Obama, that only Warren can lend credibility to the new Consumer Protection Agency and the administration’s financial reform efforts.

GUEST: Robert Weissman, President of Public Citizen, former director of the corporate accountability organization Essential Action, and former editor of the Multinational Monitor, a magazine that tracks corporate actors worldwide.

Find out more information at www.citizen.org. Sign the petition for Elizabeth Warren to head the Consumer Protection Agency here: http://www.citizen.org/Page.aspx?pid=3692