Enough Is Enough: The President's Latest Wall Street NomineeMy comment was:
I believe President Obama deserves deference in picking his team, and I've generally tried to give him that. But enough is enough.
Last Wednesday, President Obama announced his nomination of Antonio Weiss to serve as Under Secretary for Domestic Finance at the Treasury Department. This is a position that oversees Dodd-Frank implementation and a wide range of banking and economic policymaking issues, including consumer protection.
So who is Antonio Weiss? He's the head of global investment banking for the financial giant Lazard. He has spent the last 20 years of his career at Lazard -- most of it advising on international mergers and acquisitions. ...
One of the biggest and most public corporate inversions last summer was the deal cut by Burger King to slash its tax bill by purchasing the Canadian company Tim Hortons and then "inverting" the American company to Canadian ownership. And Weiss was right there, working on Burger King's tax deal. ...
In recent years, President Obama has repeatedly turned to nominees with close Wall Street ties for high-level economic positions ... Enough is enough.
Weiss is Money-to-the-core — the billionaire's next nominee for Treasury — so he'll get Republican Yes votes. But he's Obama's nominee, so he'll draw Republican No's as well.It will indeed take courage for a Democratic senator to oppose both Wall Street and the White House. Do you wonder what happens next? This.
If the nomination fails, every Democratic No has joined with Warren and become an Open Rebellion candidate going forward. Voting No in a winning cause will take real courage — "I decline to follow the leader" courage — and every man and woman who does so deserves your praise and support. The crack in the Democratic caucus will widen and the insurgency will grow.
Senator Elizabeth Warren’s Misplaced Rage at Obama’s Treasury NomineeI'll let you read and decide for yourself if Sorkin's mitigation is mitigating enough, or if it even addresses the issues Warren raises. But as you do, also consider this, from the same article:
Less than 48 hours after President Obama nominated Antonio F. Weiss, a longtime adviser on mergers at the investment bank Lazard and a Democratic supporter, to become the under secretary of Treasury for domestic finance, Senator Elizabeth Warren denounced the appointment and said that she would vote against his confirmation. ...
She said she was furious that the president would nominate someone from Wall Street. “It’s time for the Obama administration to loosen the hold that Wall Street banks have over economic policy-making,” she wrote on The Huffington Post.Specifically, she took Mr. Weiss to task for working as an adviser on Burger King’s merger with Tim Hortons, which will result in a combined company based in Canada, which she suggested should disqualify him.
It is rare to see such ferocious opposition to a nominee for a deputy position in the Treasury Department. It is rarer still when the objection comes from within the administration’s own party.
Yet Ms. Warren’s wrath is misdirected, and her understanding of the so-called inversion deal on which she bases much of her opposition appears misinformed. On these issues, as she might say, “Enough is enough.”
He [Weiss] has been a staunch supporter — and campaign donation bundler — for President Obama and is considered relatively progressive, especially by Wall Street standards.Sorkin's piece contains a lot to unpackage. First, go back to my earlier piece or to Warren's and see if she accuses Weiss of the same things Sorkin defends him for, particularly regarding the Tim Hortons–Burger King inversion. In other words, does any of Sorkin's yes-but really matter? Or more importantly, does the new Tim Hortons–Burger King information mitigate Warren's main complaint, that:
In recent years, President Obama has repeatedly turned to nominees with close Wall Street ties for high-level economic positions.I think the answer is no. Warren's charge stands as she expressed it. Obama is too close to Wall Street, and Weiss is a good friend of the "billionaire class" and no friend of the "little guy" or "the middle class," which he would need to be as head of the division that
oversees Dodd-Frank implementation and a wide range of banking and economic policymaking issues, including consumer protection.As Warren said, Weiss is unqualified by background, both specific (his job history) and general (his industry).