After making her name defending the little guy from the greedy clutches of Wall Street's worst villains, Elizabeth Warren will finally have the chance to grill the country's top bankers face-to-face. The new Senator-elect from Massachusetts will get a seat on the Senate Banking Committee after all, reports Ryan Grim at The Huffington Post. Warren served as a civilian on Congress' TARP oversight panel, but was denied the chance to be the first director of the agency she created—the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau—because her nomination wasn't going to make it through the Senate. Now she'll be the one blocking appointments and scolding witnesses from the other side of the hearing room once the new Congressional term begins in January.

Of course, Warren won't exactly be calling the shots. She'll be the most junior member of the banking committee, so while she can influence the committee's thinking, she won't get final say on its agenda. (She'll be ranked 98th out 100 on the next Senate seniority list.) Still, there isn't another place in Congress more suited to her interests or to her campaign strategy, which was built largely on a fight against Wall Street influence.

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Dashiell Bennett