The intensity of the debate surrounding the hotly anticipated presidential appointment of the first-ever head of a federal consumer protection agency ramped up yesterday, as the president of the National Organization for Women said US Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner’s lack of support for Elizabeth Warren is the result of Treasury’s “notoriously sexist” behavior.
NOW boss Terry O’Neill, in an interview with The Post said Geithner is part of an “old boy” establishment bent on preventing Warren from being considered a viable candidate to head the new consumer protection agency.
“As an outsider,” O’Neill said, “I think he’s a man with such deep ties to Wall Street that I don’t know how the sexism of that industry hasn’t imbued his Treasury.”
As the head of one the nation’s most powerful women’s rights advocacy groups, O’Neill has emerged as a vocal supporter of Warren’s. Warren, a 61-year-old Harvard professor — now serving as the chairperson of the five-member Congressional Oversight Panel, charged with reviewing how well the federal TARP money was spent — is one of two leading candidates to head the newly established Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
The other is Assistant Treasury Secretary for financial institutions Michael Barr, 44.
“It’s clear to me . . . that she has the vision to create the infrastructure to help consumers and not be co-opted by the industry that ran the economy into a ditch,” O’Neill said.
However, Warren’s strong-willed, freewheeling nature has irked some DC denizens, and banking insiders have been voicing concerns about naming someone who they view as anti-business.
O’Neill has a particular bone to pick with Geithner because he hasn’t been forceful about endorsing Warren. He has reportedly expressed some behind-the-scenes opposition to her because the brainy Harvard professor’s hard-charging style isn’t suited for the finesse Washington politics requires.
A spokesman for Treasury said that selecting Warren isn’t up to Geithner. “It’s the White House’s decision,” the spokesman said.
Still, O’Neill believes that Geithner’s lack of endorsement for Warren is indicative of the nature of Washington politics and President Obama’s administration of late.
“Treasury is a notoriously sexist and misogynist industry and the good old boys don’t like her,” the NOW president said. “It’s the testosterone-fueled attitude that drove our economy off a cliff, and yet the president has advisers that are from that industry.”
It’s a combination of [Warren’s] attitude and her anatomy,” she added.
For Geithner, this isn’t his first estrogen-charged run-in. The Treasury Secretary locked horns several times with Federal Deposit Insurance Co. Chair Sheila Bair during the height of the credit crisis.
So far, the administration has given no indication that it plans on choosing a consumer watchdog anytime soon, as was once believed. A White House spokesman yesterday said a selection was “not in the immediate future.” mark.decambre@nypost.com