A few hours before Chuck Schumer’s press conference today, the White House sent out word that it was passing over Elizabeth Warren to head the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

Liberals had called on President Obama to fight for Warren’s appointment, but with a bloc of Republican senators refusing to yield, Schumer said the White House was doing the only thing it could.

“Well, the White House dropped consideration of Elizabeth Warren because the Republicans in the Senate said they will not let her pass. Period,” Schumer said. “Even were the President to try a recess appointment, they wouldn’t allow the Senate to recess. So the President was just facing reality when he said that he couldn’t nominate her because she never would have been approved. Forty-four senators I believe signed the letter; 44 Republican senators that wouldn’t allow her to come.”

The Senate stalemate has given rise to speculation that Warren, unable to beat the upper chamber, might try to join it. Warren is a professor at Harvard Law and is said to be interested in running against Massachusetts Republican Scott Brown. Brown claimed the seat of the late Ted Kennedy in an upset victory two years ago, but will have to stand for a full term next fall.

Schumer, who guided the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee to big victories in 2006 and 2008, was recently seen dining with Warren in Washington.

Asked today whether Warren would make a good candidate, and whether he had discussed the possibility with her, the senator was unusually reticent.

“I have had conversations with Elizabeth Warren on a whole variety of subjects but I’m going to keep those to myself,” he said.