Two Leading Liberals Condemned for Playing “Gender Card” to Push for Government Growth

Washington, D.C. – Cherylyn Harley LeBon and Deneen Borelli of the Project 21 black leadership network today are condemning liberal U.S. Representatives Barney Frank (D-MA) and Lynn Woolsey (D-CA) for falsely alleging that sexism, not policy disagreements, are behind Republican opposition to a new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB).

President Obama is expected to nominate a woman, White House special advisor Elizabeth Warren, to lead the CFPB. Republicans have sought to have the agency run by a five-member commission.

At a press conference last week, Representative Barney Frank (D-MA) said, “Some people almost unconsciously think that a woman to be in an important position regarding the titans of the financial industry is not appropriate.” At the same event, Representative Lynn Woolsey (D-CA) said, “they’re threatened by an accomplished and articulate woman — that’s when they make it personal.”

House Financial Services Committee Chairman Rep. Spencer Bachus (R-AL) has spoken positively about Warren, saying his opposition to the CFPB is rooted in giving one person what he considers excessive regulatory authority over financial institutions.

Project 21’s Cherylyn Harley LeBon, a former Small Business Administration official, said, “What’s at issue with Elizabeth Warren and the CFPB is not giving a woman too much power, but giving anyone too much power. This is about Barack Obama creating yet another bureaucracy that is not yet clearly defined and will most likely grow the government and breed inefficiency. That’s not going to fix our economy.”

“It’s justified to be concerned about how Obama wants to concentrate so much power over our banking system in one person. The sex of that person is a moot point,” said Project 21 Fellow Deneen Borelli. “For liberals to use the gender card as a means of getting their way and getting their nominee is just weak. We need more economic freedom — not more regulation. Should she be nominated, Elizabeth Warren’s support should be rooted in her proficiency for the job and not a fear of being labeled sexist.”

Project 21’s LeBon, who also has served as a former senior counsel for the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee, added: “I can remember when Bush Administration nominees such as Priscilla Owens and Janice Rogers Brown were being dragged through the mud because they were women, and it was the liberals who were doing it because those women were conservative!”

Project 21, a leading voice of black conservatives since 1992, is sponsored by the National Center for Public Policy Research (https://nationalcenter.org).

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