Right Can't Stand 'Cranky' TARP Overseer

Dr. Phil, Jon Stewart, and liberals everywhere may love her, but Elizabeth Warren is causing an uproar in Washington, Politico reports. Conservatives and financial service lobbyists say the Harvard professor is using her post atop the TARP oversight committee to push an anti-industry agenda, exploring liberal approaches like nationalization and bank liquidation. “People wonder if this is the new Warren commission or the congressional oversight panel,” said one American Bankers Association executive.

Even some Democrats privately worry that Warren’s doom-and-gloom pronouncements—she’s fond of harping on uncomfortable numbers, like the $4 trillion that’s been spent on rescues so far—are hurting confidence. But Warren, a non-politician and self-proclaimed “outsider’s outsider,” doesn’t mind ruffling feathers. “The role of congressional oversight is to ask the tough questions,” she says. “It’s our job to be cranky.” (More Elizabeth Warren stories.)