Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) may have squashed the notion that brainy Harvard professor Elizabeth Warren is a shoo-in to head a new agency to protect average folk.

Warren currently serves as chairperson of the watchdog overseeing the US Treasury and has been widely viewed as a front-runner to head the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau created by the yet-to-be-signed financial reform bill.

However, yesterday on National Public Radio, Dodd, chairman of the Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee, raised serious doubt that Warren would be able to muster enough votes to get confirmed by the Senate.

“Elizabeth can be a terrific nominee but the question is, is she confirmable? And there is a serious question about that,” Dodd said during an interview yesterday.

Dodd’s comments about Warren came just before the president is expected to sign the sweeping financial overhaul bill into law tomorrow.

Sources say that Warren, who has championed consumer issues for the past several years, has been ruffling feathers in Washington.