Sen. Mitch McConnell, Meet Sen. Elizabeth Warren

Nov. 11, 2012— -- In 2010, as Americans fought with all their strength to survive the financial meltdown of 2007-2009, Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., infamously said, "The single most important thing we want to achieve is for President Obama to be a one-term president."

The line was repeated again and again by Democrats and the folks on MSNBC. How could this Republican's primary goal in his capacity as a public servant -- Senate minority leader -- be to defeat the president?

What about the foreclosure crisis? Or the auto industry? Or job creation? To many, this seemed less like "principled opposition" and more like a recipe for gridlock in Congress, by blocking the Obama administration in its efforts to conduct the business of governing our nation.

The perceived goal was to send the president back to Chicago and, when it came to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, to sequester Elizabeth Warren to her Harvard ivory tower.

Now the glittering confetti of McConnell's exploded death star drifts harmlessly through the zero-gravity of deep space. My, what a difference a day makes. The president will be living just down the road from a Sen. Warren for four years.

No doubt, such a reality is beginning to set in for McConnell. The history books will record this as a victory for consumer protection, which the Republican Party has obsessively caucused against at every turn. It won't be quite so easy for them to decimate Dodd-Frank now, nor are they likely to prevail in their efforts to defang the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

Senator-elect Warren, whom the GOP sought to marginalize, will now be front and center in the fight to defend the fledgling agency in its efforts to protect families from predatory financial practices.