Cordray had a short but impressive run as Ohio Attorney General, taking over for Marc Dann, who resigned after a sexual harassment scandal. Cordray was the very first Attorney General to sue a mortgage servicer over foreclosure fraud and robo-signing, in October 2010. I spoke with Cordray about that lawsuit against GMAC at that time. Unfortunately, he lost his re-election to former Sen. Mike DeWine in 2010, but Warren brought him into CFPB as head of enforcement.

A separate article in the Wall Street Journal said the short list was narrowed to Raj Date, Richard Cordray and Jennifer Granholm. But Granholm already turned down the job, saying Warren deserved it, and she doesn’t work at CFPB. So it’s probably down to Cordray and Date, and in all honesty, I’m fairly sure Date will be nominated. The fact that nobody would leapfrog Warren and take the job was working to constrain the Administration’s options for a time, but once Date expressed willingness, Warren couldn’t very well say no to someone she hired.

According to Public Citizen, there’s nothing stopping the President from circumventing the Congress for recess appointments of key positions, including Elizabeth Warren for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. And they have the Constitutional passages to prove it.

89 House Democrats just fired off a letter to President Obama asking that he appoint Elizabeth Warren as the Director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. The list of names comes mostly from the Progressive Caucus but includes members of the House leadership like Budget Committee ranking member Chris Van Hollen, Education and the Workforce Committee ranking member George Miller and House Democratic Caucus Chair John Larson. Reps. Carolyn Maloney, Brad Miller and Keith Ellison, all members of the Financial Services Committee, put together the letter. They specifically stated that Warren should be appointed by “recess appointment if necessary.”

Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA), the ranking member on the House Financial Services Committee, thinks that the Republican efforts to both block any appointment for the Directorship of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and to now block recess appointments so a Director cannot be installed, comprises an “outrageous abuse of the Constitution,” and must mean that the “Republicans are completely afraid of Elizabeth Warren,” who is currently setting up the bureau, and who is the leading candidate to take it over.

This threat is empty, and should be regarded with a laugh and a recess appointment for CFPB as soon as possible. In addition, they should elevate this threat. “Republicans just sent me a letter saying that they’ll stop the business of the Senate if I dare install someone to protect consumers getting ripped off by banks and mortgage companies,” would be a sample public statement.

Shelby tells the White House that NOBODY is confirmable. All things being equal, then, the Warren nomination becomes incredibly attractive. Not to mention the fact that there’s a built-in deadline to get a director up and running by July 21 or else CFPB loses the ability to regulate non-bank financial institutions.

Frank Keating, the former Republican Governor of Oklahoma who is now the President of the American Bankers Association, just announced in a speech that he would back Elizabeth Warren if she were nominated by the President to run the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Keating makes the second bank trade group leader in two days to speak on the likelihood of Warren’s nomination, joining Camden Fine, President of the Independent Community Bankers Association.

Warren was the emissary sent to Senate Democrats’ offices to warn them about an imminent recess appointment. Which could be herself.

President Obama is not only appointing someone who wants to dismantle DNI even while Congress thinks it should be strengthened; he’s doing so in such a way that deliberately avoids reestablishing the balance of power between the branches of government.