Pelosi to Wall Street: Ignore Warren. Dems Still Love You

[eridani]

http://www.commondreams.org/news/2015/07/01/pelosi-wall-street-ignore-warren-dems-still-love-you

U.S. House Minority Leader Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) on Wednesday told CNBC that there was no "consensus" among Democrats that the Obama administration should enforce stricter regulations on the financial industry, highlighting a growing intra-party divide just as the 2016 presidential election begins to take shape.

Pelosi's comments draw another line in the sand between so-called "corporate" and "progressive" Democrats, coming amid criticism from Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and others that the White House, as well as Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) chair Mary Jo White, have been "too soft" on Wall Street.

"There may have been a couple of people who say that, but that is not the consensus in our party," Pelosi said in a 45-minute interview with CNBC's John Harwood. "People will express themselves the way they do. That doesn't mean they're speaking for the party."

The interview was published just over a week after Pelosi and Warren teamed up in an ultimately failed effort to block passage of the controversial legislation known as Trade Promotion Authority, or Fast Track, which gives President Barack Obama power to push pro-corporate agendas through Congress without input from lawmakers.

Pelosi's statement on Wednesday "was a reminder that, as the leader of House Democrats, Pelosi outranks Warren," Harwood wrote.

But the former speaker's comments are not surprising, Harwood continued. "Pelosi is a prodigious fundraiser who needs some Wall Street backing for her effort to recapture a Democratic majority," he wrote. "She also was the speaker who pushed through the Dodd-Frank Wall Street regulation bill that Warren wishes had been tougher."

[tularetom]

1. Oh no she di-int

[kenfrequed]

2. This is one of the reasons the Great Blue Wave of 2006 kind of turned into a trickle.

We had the weakest, most milquetoast, imaginable democrats who were desperately in need of an anatomy lesson to locate their spines that the American people put into office to oppose Bush. Is it any wonder that Pelosi would divide the party against the populist and progressive energy that is pushing us forward?

We don't need "prodigious fundraising" we need more candidates like Al Franken, Elizabeth Warren, and Bernie Sanders. We need to take the party and the country away from the wealthy and bring it back to the people, not merely trade wealthy people who happen to be in control.

[cascadiance]

3. My old photoshop fits here too...

Maybe someone could swap a photo of Jamie Dimon in for Bush's face there... My Adobe tools are offline at the moment.

[StandingInLeftField]

9. How's This?

[img][/img]

[cascadiance]

10. Excellent! These days there are so many others that could have this sort of photoshop...

Debbie Wasserman Schultz, etc. too.

[Wilms]

4. Unreal. n/t

[Scuba]

5. Pelosi: "Some of us are still pretending we don't know what's wrong with Wall Street."

[Enthusiast]

6. Precisely.

[merrily]

8. Fun fact. The first capitol of the USA was not in Washington, D.C.

[merrily]

7. Paul Pelosi.