Elizabeth Warren on The Daily Show with John Stewart, 4/26/11

Reps. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY), Keith Ellison (D-MN), and Brad Miller (D-NC) are circulating a letter among House Democrats pressing President Obama to offer Elizabeth Warren a recess appointment to head the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau created by the Dodd-Frank Wall Street reform law. The letter comes after 44 of the 47 Senate Republicans vowed to filibuster any nominee to the CFPB unless and until the agency is made powerless.

Brian Beutler has the letter:

"Regretfully, Republicans in the Senate have now made it clear that they oppose reform," reads a letter from House Democrats that will be delivered to President Obama. They have vowed that they will not allow consideration of any nominee to head the CFPB until the bureau is weakened. They would rather hold your appointment hostage and obstruct the process than make sure consumers have a strong advocate on their side. Since Republican Senators have said that no one is acceptable unless the law is weakened, we would urge you to nominate Professor Warren as the CFPB's first Director anyway. If Republicans in the Senate indeed refuse to consider her, we request that you use your constitutional authority to make her a recess appointment. ....Because of Senate filibuster rules, Obama won't be able to confirm even a consensus director without undermining the central mission of the bureau. That leaves a recess appointment as [Obama's] only option—he can pick whomever he wants, and Warren is a popular choice among progressives and reform advocates.

If the agency is to accomplish anything on behalf of American consumers, it needs to have the independence that the Republicans are now determined to kill. Because, as House Financial Services Committee chair Rep. Spencer Bachus (R-AL) has said, the Republicans are "there to serve the banks." The too big to fail banks hate Warren, while small, community banks (the kind that can't really pony up the amount of political money Bachus and his colleagues expect) support her.

A recess appointment of Warren would be a smart move for policy—making sure the agency is able to do what it was intended to do, give American families a fighting chance. It would be a smart move politically for Obama—playing hardball now with Republicans, and proving that he has the mettle to do it, makes sense in the ongoing budget negotiations. There's nothing at this point to lose with a recess appointment, and a great deal to gain.