Working with Elizabeth Warren is no walk in the park, critics say

Similar episodes have been characteristic of Warren’s tenure as chair of the Congressional Oversight Panel (COP) for TARP. In December 2008, when COP released its first report, the lone Republican on the panel, Rep. Jeb Hensarling of Texas, was very critical of the process leading up to the report’s publication. Hensarling said he received the finished product only eight minutes before he was supposed to vote on it.

“Unless the majority is willing to empower members of that panel to have the right to call witnesses to receive documents as opposed to asking for her [Warren’s] good graces, it’s a sham and I won’t participate,” Hensarling said at the time. “I am not going to sit around and be the Republican window-dressing.”

Hensarling’s spokesperson also called the panel a “partisan PR circus by its chairwoman.”

“Have you ever seen a chair of a government oversight committee act the way she has the last two years?” asked Zywicki.

But as TheDC previously reported, Warren’s temperament and work ethic are not the only reasons some think her nomination deserves more than a little deliberation. Some of her scholarly credentials have come into question and those in the banking industry worry Warren doesn’t understand all the nuances of small banking.

As for the White House, they have thus far stayed tight-lipped about whether Warren will ultimately be their pick to run one of the biggest bureaucratic arms to come out of the financial reform bill. White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs, however, told reporters late Wednesday that a press briefing on the subject could be held within days.