'She's Supposed To Be a Consumer Advocate? That’s Laughable'

Another of Obama's best and brightest from Harvard. Can you imagine the outcry from the left if a GOP candidate who worked for George W. Bush represented one of those "greedy" insurance companies that allegedly short-changed asbestos victims? Goodness knows we'd be seeing wheelchair-bound patients rolled out for the cameras saying Republicans want people to suffer.

But she's one of Obama's Harvard elites, so let's just move along, nothing to see here.

President Obama’s consumer protection adviser Elizabeth Warren — widely touted as the Democrats’ best hope against U.S. Sen. Scott Brown — was paid $168,000 by a powerful insurance company seeking to avoid future lawsuits from asbestos victims, a move that critics say taints her pro-consumer credibility.

The Harvard Law School professor played a key role in defending Travelers Insurance against future lawsuits from asbestos victims in a complex case that went before the Supreme Court in 2008. Most recently, Warren has led the effort to launch Obama’s new Consumer Financial Protection Agency this month, and is considered a leading candidate to head it — but she is expected to face virulent GOP opposition if nominated.

“She’s supposed to be a consumer advocate? That’s laughable,” said Gayla Benefield, an asbestos victims’ advocate and victim herself. “Those lawyers are trying to keep every penny away from people who are faced with this disease. I guess she’s just doing her job, but I don’t think she would get the vote of anybody who’s an asbestos victim.”

A regular champion of the little people. Why, of course she is:



You suppose that bloated bag of wind would have been lobbing softballs at Warren if he was aware she was flacking for an insurance company? Not likely. Then again, he's an even bigger hypocrite than she is.

Meanwhile, some Democrats even want her to run against Scott Brown. Good luck with that.

Warren also has been named as a potential top candidate in the high-stakes run against Brown, the Bay State congressional delegation’s lone Republican, in a race that so far has drawn lower-profile Democratic candidates.

Warren argued in 2008 court briefings that Travelers — which insured Denver asbestos mining company Johns Manville Corp. — should be protected from future lawsuits after agreeing to pay a $500 million settlement to asbestos plaintiffs in 2004. She wrote that the company also paid “tens of millions,” into a trust created for victims when the Johns Manville Corp. filed for bankruptcy in 1982.