Elizabeth Warren for U.S. Senate

As I mentioned a few days ago, Obama, giving in once again to Republican pressure, has decided with withdraw his support of Harvard professor Elizabeth Warren to be head of the newly formed Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. The good news is, that may not be the last we see of her, though. There is currently a movement afoot to draft the principled corporate watchdog to run for the Senate against Wall Street favorite Scott Brown, who succeeded Ted Kennedy in a surprise 2010 upset. As Steve Benen points out in his Washington Monthly column today, Republicans may soon come to “regret the decision to block her CFPB prospects.” And, the good news is, Warren seems to be considering it.

Some, like Salon’s Steve Kornacki, however, don’t believe she has much of a chance against Scott Brown. Here’s a clip from his opinion piece:

…Democrats like to tell themselves that Brown is beatable simply because Massachusetts has such pronounced Democratic tendencies. Before Brown’s victory last year, no Republican had won a Senate election in the state since 1972, and it’s been 17 years (and counting) since a GOP candidate won a U.S. House race. With the presidential race at the top of the ticket, turnout should be much higher next fall than it was in the January ’10 special election, with the vast majority of those new voters likely supporting Barack Obama. The Democrats’ theory is that this Obama support will trickle down to their Senate candidate, erasing the 5-point margin that Brown won by in ’10 and returning the seat to Democratic hands.

But if it were this easy, why is the party having such trouble attracting a candidate? Gov. Deval Patrick has ruled out running and no one from the all-Democratic congressional delegation is interested. Neither is Marty Meehan, the still-ambitious former congressman who is sitting on a $5 million war chest. Their reluctance speaks to a reality that Democrats don’t like to admit: In his 18 months on the job, Brown has skillfully separated himself from his party’s national brand and emerged as the most popular politician in Massachusetts. It may be true that his simple presence in the Senate serves to empower conservative Republicans who themselves would be intensely unpopular in Massachusetts and that Brown is mostly a reliable Republican vote. But that’s not what most swing voters in Massachusetts apparently see. They like Brown personally, enjoy his style and — thanks to several high-profile and well-timed breaks with the GOP leadership — consider him an independent voice, not a Republican drone…

But, I’d prefer to stay optimistic, and focus on the prospect of Warren in the Senate, fighting against Wall Street on behalf of the rest of us. And, who knows, perhaps we could see her ready for Presidential run by 2016. Here, with more on that, is a clip from an article in The Nation by John Nichols:

…Four years in the Senate could well make Elizabeth Warren a serious contender for the 2016 Democratic presidential nomination—and rightly so. As a senator, she would serve in the independent progressive Wellstone-Feingold style. And that’s almost certainly what Democrats—and Americans—will be looking for after the eight years of Obama or four years of Rombachperrycain.

But even if Warren never goes presidential, she (and those who have been enthusiastic about her potential as a national leader) should consider the Senate. Her election to the chamber would be in the tradition of former Alaska Senator Ernest Gruening, former Oregon Senator Wayne Morse and former New York Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan, scholars and presidential appointees whose presence elevated the stature of the Senate and the general quality of the debate in Washington.

It would also be in the tradition of Wellstone, who recognized long ago that Elizabeth Warren would make a exceptional senator…

Wellstone, as Nichols points out, used to joke that he could use 10 more Progressives in the Senate, “or one Elizabeth Warren.”

Here’s hoping she gives it a shot.

[Thanks to Oliva for sharing a good number of these links.]