Liz isn’t obstructing, she is progressing.
Via The Hill
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 also held up 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.[…]
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.
Although Warren herself was out of the country at the time — visiting Israel in a trip that only heightened presidential speculation — White House officials worked together with her staff on the bill.
Obama aides also say the pair worked together to craft the Fair Shot college loans proposal last summer, which would have allowed those holding federal student loans to refinance at a lower rate. The initiative, which Warren headed on Capitol Hill, became a centerpiece item in Democrats’ midterm campaigns.
And the White House says they’ve been coordinating closely with Warren on the confirmation of surgeon general nominee Vivek Murthy, who has come under fire from conservatives over his support for gun control.