Watch Out, Wall Street. Sheriff Pelosi's Coming.

Wall Street's machinations will be laid bare for all to see if House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has her way.

In an unexpected pledge -- a response to a question during a speaking gig in San Francisco -- the California Democrat promised to create a commission to investigate what led up to the financial collapse and exactly what taxpayers are forking over to dig the economy out of its current mess.

She was persuaded, she said, by continued public unhappiness with the huge bailouts to banks and insurance companies as well as the multimillion-dollar bonuses executives are collecting at firms such as American Insurance Group that were rescued by tax dollars.

Pelosi said she had broached the idea to Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner yesterday. She said she would round up support from fellow lawmakers next week when Congress returns from recess.

"We're going to have a commission," she said, "even if it is only in the House of Representatives."

Some Republican colleagues, including fellow Californian Darrell Issa, want an in-depth investigation. He has twice introduced legislation to create a national commission. Like Pelosi, he has urged that a bipartisan panel, called the Financial Oversight Commission, be modeled after the 9/11 panel -- and kept independent of the Administration and of Congress.

Pelosi didn't give her proposed panel a name, but she told the audience at the Commonwealth Club of California that she wanted a special commission similar to the Pecora Commission, a bipartisan investigative body set up by the U.S. Senate in 1932 to uncover the causes of the 1929 Wall Street Crash.

That commission -- named after Ferdinand Pecora, who was a chief counsel of the Senate Banking Committee -- issued findings and recommendations that led to the public supporting major banking reforms and new securities laws. The Securities and Exchange Commission was created in the wake of the commission's findings.

Existing congressional panels, including the House Financial Services Committee led by Democrat Barney Frank, have held a series of hearings about various facets of the financial crisis, including the bailout of A.I.G. and federal regulatory failures.

All agree that tighter regulation is needed to prevent a recurrence of the scariest financial problems that have hit the country since the Great Depression, but those favoring a commission think laying out the abuses, frauds, and manipulations that underpinned the financial crisis will galvanize public opinion -- not unlike the 9/11 commission.

While no dates or deadlines were mentioned, jockeying for members of the powerful panel already has begun. The first name to pop up is that of Elizabeth Warren, the Harvard law professor who chairs the Congressional Oversight Panel for the banking bailout.

"She's neither awed by the wealth of Wall Street nor cowed by the complexities of exotic financial instruments," said Robert Borosage, co-director of liberal advocacy group Campaign for America.

Even though Warren is not a prosecutor, Borosage endorsed her on grounds she is "independent, bold, fearless and intelligent." But he noted that the commission would need subpoena power and a "fearless prosecutor, a modern day Pecora, committed to unearthing the truth."

by Elizabeth Olson