Elizabeth Warren Weighing Senate Run

UPDATE #2: Well that's certainly not going to bring an end to the Senate speculation.

Elizabeth Warren left the door wide open Monday afternoon to mounting a challenge to Massachusetts Republican Scott Brown.

"Massachusetts does beckon, in that it's my home," Warren said in an interview with MSNBC when asked about a potential campaign. "I need to do that thinking from home ... not from Washington."

A close reading of her response, Politico reports, makes it "clear she's contemplating it."

Meanwhile, the Huffington Post reports that a progressive group has launched an effort to draft her and has already begun fundraising for a potential campaign.

UPDATE Monday at 10:53 a.m.: President Obama on Sunday tapped former Ohio Attorney General Richard Cordray as his pick to lead the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. But that doesn't mean we've heard the last of the woman he passed over, Elizabeth Warren.

Political observers have already begun speculating that Warren could launch a Senate run challenging Massachusetts Republican Scott Brown. Experts believe that Warren has the profile and the fundraisng prowess to compete seriously against Brown for the seat once held by the late Ted Kennedy.

“She’s a wild card,” Boston University political-history professor Thomas Watanabe told the Boston Herald. “In some ways, she would be the fresh new face, interestingly playing the role that Scott Brown played when he ran in the special election. He’s the Washington insider now ... she would clearly be somebody who’s never held elective office.”

Original Post Saturday at 12:07 p.m.: It could be yet another win for Wall Street and a loss for consumers. The Wall Street Journal reports that sources say Elizabeth Warren is unlikely to be President Obama’s pick to head the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which opens on Thursday.

Though popular among Democrats and progressives who feel she is supremely qualified and a tenacious consumer advocate, Warren has long been seen as a political lightning rod—disliked by many Republicans who say her approach to Wall Street will be too heavy-handed. And the sooner a head is chosen, the sooner the CFPB can use all of its vested powers to protect consumers from companies that want to take advantage of them.

The Journal reports:

“The White House has come under criticism for failing to nominate a director for an agency that’s a key part of the 2010 Dodd-Frank financial-regulatory overhaul. The CFPB was established to protect consumers against abusive and fraudulent practices related to financial products like credit cards, mortgages and payday loans. The agency, which was given broad authority by Congress, only gets some of its power once it has a director.”

A Senate confirmation hearing for whomever the president nominates would likely mean a long and public political fight in Washington. President Obama could use a recess appointment to fill the position, but Republican lawmakers have pledged to prevent such a move by not taking their recess.

Warren, a Harvard professor and bankruptcy law expert, has successfully shaped the CFPB to her own specs despite the fact that she may never lead it, according to Bloomberg. She may instead see the organization headed up by the leader of its enforcement arm, Former Ohio Attorney General Richard Cordray, or her top aide Raj Date—both of whom have intimate knowledge of the organization and have been mentioned as possible candidates.