Make The GOP Filibuster Financial Reform

by Deacon Blues

After attempting to reach a bipartisan agreement with a new GOP dance partner, only to see the GOP try and run the clock out to prevent a new consumer protection agency on financial products, Chris Dodd announced this morning that he's going ahead with his own financial reform bill.

Dodd got nowhere with GOP dinosaur Richard Shelby and felt he could do business instead with Tennessee GOP senator Bob Corker, only to find that Corker was giving on small stuff but stalling on the big piece, which was to establish a new agency to protect Main Street from Wall Street. With the legislative clock running out, Dodd finally took back control of the bill today and will go forward with a Democratic bill that will have the consumer protections in it that Wall Street and their GOP sluts have fought since Day One, as if the meltdown never happened. The GOP and Wall Street want the status quo, and yet for some reason Democrats have been afraid to make the GOP filibuster this bill, which is a perfect defining issue for the 2010 midterms.

Note how the LA Times reporter buys into the right wing spin that any Democratic bill without GOP support "spells trouble" for the Democrats, even though they won the last election and have a solid majority in both houses.

Dodd said he will unveil his latest draft of the legislation Monday and wants his committee to begin considering a bill the week of March 22. But with Republicans holding enough seats to block any legislation, the failure to produce a bipartisan bill spells trouble for Democrats hoping to push through a regulatory overhaul that is one of President Obama's top priorities.

Corker said he was disappointed, but would continue to work with Dodd. Corker said that with a push coming by Democrats to pass healthcare overhaul using a controversial Senate procedure, Dodd "felt the need to go ahead regardless of where we are in the negotiations to put forth a bill on Monday."

That's right; majority rule and reconciliation, two things that the GOP used freely during their time in power, are now suddenly "trouble" and "controversial" when the Democrats use them, according to this reporter.

If the Democrats knew what they were doing, they would:

1) Have an aggressive media pushback operation to deal with garbage like this; and
2) Force the GOP to filibuster this bill.

But then, that would require them to know what they are doing. Yet Harry Reid may be getting a clue.