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Sen. Elizabeth Warren has an explanation for the singular nature of her power.

Ill always be an outsider. Thats how I understand the world, the Massachusetts Democrat said in an interview. Theres a real benefit to being clear about this. I know why Im here. I think about this every morning before I open my eyes, and Im still thinking about it every night when I go to sleep.

Being the target of that kind of focus can be an excruciating experience the freshest case in point being investment banker Antonio Weiss, whom President Obama put forward last year as his nominee for Treasury undersecretary for domestic finance.

Initially seen as a highly credentialed and noncontroversial pick for a low-profile post, Weiss found himself up against a storm of opposition, led by Warren, who said he was yet another example of Wall Street cronyism within the Obama administration.

On Monday, Weiss wrote a letter to the president asking that his name be taken out of consideration.

The tussle sent yet another signal, maybe the clearest yet, of how Warren intends to wield her growing clout. It showed that she and her brand of populism are forces to be reckoned with not only by Obama and his team, but also by the Democrats likely 2016 presidential nominee Hillary Clinton.

Its not about Antonio Weiss personally, said Simon Johnson, an outspoken Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor and former International Monetary Fund chief economist who admires Warren and shares her views. What its really about is the presidential election.

No small amount of speculation has centered on whether Warren herself will run for the White House in 2016. She insists that she will not. But her advisers and longtime allies say that she intends to keep the pressure on Clinton, to make sure the former secretary of state pays more than lip service to the issues that matter to Warren.

She is training her heat vision not on the Oval Office, but two doors down the hall on the Cabinet Room. Warren wants to make sure that Wall Street-aligned figures who have shaped the Clinton and Obama brand of economic policy for the past quarter-century, going back to former Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin, are not the only ones at the oval mahogany table.

The worst case for us is that [Clinton] gives a feisty speech now and then, but surrounds herself with the same old economic gurus, said one longtime Warren ally, insisting upon anonymity to speak frankly.

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Elizabeth Warren keeps pressure on Hillary Clinton and Democrats ahead of 2016