Well forgive me for jumping the gun here, but believe I’ll vote for this woman when she’s ready to run for president.

In the calmest sounding voice, and with the most ferocious demeanor, Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) ripped into government regulators during a Senate Banking Committee hearing Thursday morning. As you will see in the video, Warren relentlessly demanded facts about banks that fraudulently foreclosed on homeowners during 2009 and 2010. She wanted, not some, but ALL of the figures, bank by bank, case by case. For a minute I imagined her as my IRS auditor. I had to get up and leave the room.

Warren would not let up. She wanted to know why there were no records containing the number of illegally foreclosed homes. It’s a fair question. Apparently the Independent Foreclosure Review was abandoned. It got too messy, and they decided to go with Door Number Two: a $9.3 billion settlement. That might sound good for the homeowners, but it only equates to $1,000 per home. That’s right. Your home is illegally foreclosed on, you lose your home through fraudulent bank practices, and the settlement to you is $1,000.

Warren and other legislators have, for months, repeatedly asked bank regulators at the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and the Federal Reserve, for information and accountability as to why the review was dropped in January in favor of settlement. Her concern is that the homeowners should know all the facts, especially if they chose to sue the bank. As I watch this video clip, I find myself feeling bad for the dastardly regulators – the ones who’ve been putting the banks’ interest over the homeowner’s welfare. Wait a minute. Never mind.





Here are a few text excerpts from the hearing.

WARREN: So you have made a decision to protect the banks but not a decision tell the families who have been illegally foreclosed against? RICHARD ASHTON (FEDERAL RESERVE): We haven’t made a decision about what information we would provide to individuals. WARREN: So I just want to make sure I get this straight. Families get pennies on the dollar in the settlement for having been the victims of illegal activities or mistakes in the banks’ activities. You now know individual cases where the banks violated the law and you’re not going to tell the homeowners or at least it’s not clear if you’re going to do that?

Here’s the video:

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ByPRlI8mYI]

This is a talent. This must be something Elizabeth Warren was born to do. I would just like to know, “What took her so long to get here?”