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Sunday's announced nomination of former Ohio attorney general Richard Cordray as director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau was a blow to liberals hoping for White House consumer protection adviser Elizabeth Warren to head the new regulatory body. But it doesn't look like the Harvard law professor and tenacious Wall Street critic is going to let that political capital go to waste: According to a number of reports, she's strongly considering running for Senator Scott Brown's seat in Massachusetts--and she's likely the left's best hope. "Political experts [say] Warren has both the appeal and the access to deep donor pockets to seriously challenge Brown," reports the Boston Herald this morning. "And given the role Senate Republicans played in derailing her shot at the federal post, she could have a strong motive to recapture the iconic so-called Kennedy seat for the Democrats." Here's why prognosticators say she'll make a good candidate.

She's the strongest challenger, writes Robert Kuttner at The American Prospect. "In Massachusetts, the Democratic field right now is stunningly weak, and Warren is the one candidate who can galvanize voters and take back the seat formerly held by Ted Kennedy," he writes. "The two most visible contenders in the race are both decent people who would be weak candidates--Seti Warren, mayor of suburban Newton, and Alan Khazei, a good-government reformer associated with City Year, who finished a distant third in the Democratic primary pack last time. Neither would stand a prayer against Scott Brown."