Are Treasury's Knives Coming Out Against Elizabeth Warren?

[onehandle]

After several weeks of officially pleasant interactions, signs are emerging that the Treasury Department's knives may be coming out against Elizabeth Warren. In recent weeks, Treasury officials have leaked details about Warren to Politico as part of what appears to be an effort to paint her as some kind of prima donna. These relatively silly stories raise troubling questions, however, about what Treasury officials may be leaking with fewer fingerprints and greater ramifications.

The Politico pieces have been petty, but there's no doubt they both came from Treasury. On Oct. 12, Politico ran a piece featuring this anonymous nugget (among others): Some at Treasury grumble that Warren, in her early memos, spent much time detailing what press she was going to do . . . rather than the nuts and bolts of setting up an agency.

Then yesterday, in Politico's Morning Money column: NEW PAINT JOB - We also hear that while Warren is out west, her Treasury office is getting a makeover (Warren will have digs both at Treasury and the CFPB's L Street headquarters). That's something of a rarity for Treasury officials, who usually leave their offices as-is. There is much internal debate as to exactly what color it is that is going up on Warren's walls. One person called it "Arizona sunset," another "terra cotta."

Both of these represent the kind of meaningless, issue-free pseudo-news that serves as Politico's bread-and-butter. The actual complaints themselves, of course, are preposterous. Warren is painting her office and making media appearances--exactly the sort of things you'd expect the head of a new federal agency to be doing during her first weeks on the job. But look at the frame Treasury is putting on the stories. In both, Warren is portrayed as an ego-centric fluff-monger, not a serious policymaker. Look at fancy Elizabeth Warren painting her office! Our humble boss Timothy Geithner would never do such a thing! Just days before an election, it's somewhat astonishing that Treasury officials would be working the media to smear Warren instead of, say, talking about the economy. And it's certainly counterproductive for Treasury to be creating these distractions for the new, can't-be-independent-soon-enough agency as it sets out to re-regulate Wall Street.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/zach-carter/are-treasurys-knives-comi_b_776052.html

[flpoljunkie]

1. If they think they can intimidate Elizabeth Warren with this crap, they are sadly mistaken!

[ClassWarrior]

2. Unrecs? Really?

NGU.