Buyers beware

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has descended into a messy succession scandal, as Washington’s dysfunction continues to consume nearly every government agency.

The only guarantee about the current saga is who the losers will be: average American consumers.

The bureaucratic game of musical chairs began Friday, when former bureau Director Richard Cordray abruptly resigned. Before leaving, Cordray, an Obama appointee, named Leandra English as his effective acting director.

Although federal law allowed Cordray to do this, it was definitely a political maneuver, and one seen as as a way to protect the bureau from the White House. Cordray wanted his own appointee in place until the Senate could complete the process of confirming a new director.

But President Trump decided to name Mick Mulvaney, currently the director of the Office of Management and Budget, to the post. On Sunday evening, English filed a lawsuit against President Trump in an attempt to block Mulvaney’s appointment.

On Monday, both English and Mulvaney showed up to work at the bureau. Both sent messages to (presumably confused) employees, claiming they were the acting director.

This would all be a moderately entertaining comedy of errors if consumer protection didn’t hang in the balance.

The bureau has been the center of partisan bickering because it’s been effective. By stepping in after banks and other corporations behave in illegal or unethical ways, it’s returned some $12 billion to consumers.

Consumer advocates have lined up behind English, believing she would be the most likely to carry on the bureau’s important mission.

But President Trump should allow Mulvaney, who has called the bureau “a joke,” to make his case before the Senate. American consumers deserve to know the views of the man charged with protecting their interests.