"The Richard Cordray rollout begins" [View all]

[WilliamPitt]

Mitt Romney is denouncing Obama’s recess appointment of Richard Cordray as top consumer cop as “Chicago style politics at its worst.” Rick Santorum is calling on the Senate to sue to stop the appointment. Republicans in Congress are threatening all sorts of actions to block it. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce may head to court with its own lawyers.

The White House’s response? It has quickly rolled out Cordray to tell the American people what he actually intends to do on behalf of consumers in his new role.

Cordray just delivered a speech at the Brookings Institution, where he detailed his agenda for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. The game plan: While Republicans debate process, Cordray is trying to tell the American people what GOP opposition to his appointment would take away from them in the way of consumer protection.

Cordray’s speech at Brookings outlined what the Times calls a “vigorous oversight and enforcement agenda,”putting purveyors of financial products on notice that they will face “real consequences to breaking the law.” He added that his agency would be particularly aggressive in monitoring the types of financial companies that have previously gone mostly unregulated.

The rest: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/post/the-richard-cordray-rollout-begins/2012/01/05/gIQAQf1zcP_blog.html