Senate Blocks Second Obama Consumer Financial Watchdog Nominee

President Obama's pick to head the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has been blocked from a confirmation vote in the Senate with only one Republican, Sen. Scott Brown of Massachusetts voting in favor of moving the nomination forward.

Former Ohio Attorney General Richard Cordray is second nominee the administration has sent to the Senate. Both he and consumer advocate Elizabeth Warren who oversaw creation of the bureau, failed to get approval of a filibuster-proof majority needed to move forward on an up-or-down vote.

President Obama took to the White House briefing room to chastise Republicans for holding up the nomination.

"We have a Congress right now, Republicans in Congress right now, who seem to have entirely forgotten how we got into this mess," the president said referring to the financial crisis that plagues the nation. "My hope and expectation is that Republicans who blocked this nomination come to their senses."

This week the White House leaned on several Republican senators, even spotlighting bipartisan local lawmakers from their states who support the nomination, in an effort to convince the senators to give Cordray the go-ahead. Sens. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, and Susan Collins, R-Maine, both said this week their no-votes aren't an indictment of Cordray, but of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau itself.

The bureau is a product of the Dodd-Frank financial overhaul that has been unpopular among Republican lawmakers and GOP presidential candidates, many of whom have called for the legislation to be repealed.

The president said he won't rule out using a recess appointment to push Cordray's nomination ahead. Senate leader Mitch McConnell has suggested Republicans may hold the body in a pro-forma session to keep the president from appointing Cordray to the post.