White House insists things are good with Elizabeth Warren
12/14/14

The White House says President Obama has a good relationship with Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), who is battling Obama on a host of high-profile issues.

Warren, picked by Obama to be a special assistant to the president in his first term, led a liberal insurrection to the Obama-backed $1.1 trillion government-funding bill last week.

Warren has also rallied opposition to Obama’s nomination of Antonio Weiss to the Treasury Department. Warren has slammed Weiss, the head of global investment banking firm Lazard, for his company’s role in facilitating so-called “inversions,” where companies merge with international partners in a bid to avoid U.S. taxes.

And she’s convinced enough prominent Democrats — including Sens. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), and Al Franken (D-Minn.) — to oppose his nomination that the White House would need Republicans to ensure his confirmation.

In both cases, Warren is casting the White House as either too close to Wall Street, or not tough enough on big banks.

Warren has also denounced Obama’s efforts to secure trade agreements with the European Union and a group of Asian and Pacific countries.

Despite the friction, the White House says the relationship between Obama and Warren is healthy.

...Adam Green, co-founder of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee — an outside group that has swung support behind Warren and repeatedly criticized Obama — said her stand against the government-funding bill left progressives on Capitol Hill “more united and ferocious in fighting for a big idea than ever.”

Green contrasted her vision to “corporate Democrats who were willing to sell out to Wall Street. “

But another White House official pointed to coordination between Warren and the White House on the tax extenders bill to highlight how they are often fighting on the same side.

...“When you have visible consternation, anger by [House Minority Leader Nancy] Pelosi as well as Warren and others within the democratic coalition, you've got to pay attention because if the president hopes to get things done, he needs a fairly unified coalition,” said Democratic strategist Peter Fenn. “And so you need to pay a lot of attention to these folks when it comes to appointment issues, when it comes to legislation affecting Wall Street issues.”

That’s likely why despite her open defiance of the president, the White House is eager to show that Obama and Warren are largely in simpatico.

http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/227047-white-house-insists-things-are-good-with-warren