Senator Warren?

The current speculation is that Elizabeth Warren, now no longer a candidate to head up the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau she created, will run for Scott Brown's US Senate seat. Ezra Klein provides the relevant horse-race context, which I think is right -- a Senator clearly trumps an appointee.

If Warren did run and win, though, the bigger victory would be for financial sanity. As it stands, there is a distinct lack of "outsiders" among Senators that specialize in financial issues. Far too many Democrats and Republicans alike are quietly on the side of Wall Street interests. A Senator Elizabeth Warren, free to weigh in both publicly and legislatively on a variety of financial issues would be immensely welcome.

Besides allowing her a chance at addressing all sorts of financial issues and not only consumer protection, a Senate seat would also offer Warren a much greater public platform, which would play to the communication skills which make her stand out so among good thinkers on financial issues.

A friend offered the potential downside that to get through an election campaign, Warren could end up raising funds from donors that are rather comfortable with the status quo on Wall Street, which could in turn cause her to self-censor her views. I think this doesn't really match what we know about the influence of political donations. From what I understand, a candidate's basic ideology and opinions is usually what attracts donors in the first place, who then stand to benefit after an election victory. Outright conversions seem to be much more rare.