The answer to your question--and it hurts me to say it--is that on medical malpractice, there are lawyer/donors who can make money maintaining the status quo, whereas w/r/t bankruptcy, the services of lawyer/donors became more valuable by changing things. It's a whole lot harder to declare bankruptcy and get away with it now; it's a task that you really, really want good legal help with.

And that is exactly why I dispise the gop from reagan, okay, nixon onwards but reagan was much more blatant, becasue that's one of their "greatest" legacies, the grotesque cynicism that they have wrought on the body politic.

Yes, this kind of crap has always gone on, and always will, but, in the past, it was ameliorated to some extent by some, some mind you, less self serving actions.

Now, whether true or not, that's the first thing you think, what's in it for him/her. And it's reflected in the self centrism of younger generations. The enron traders gloating over screwing Grandma Millie would be unthinkable not that long ago, and certainly not to that extent not that long ago.

It's not the Democrats that need to re-locate their values, it's society to needs to do that.

It's simple. You need 41 votes to have a filibuster, and because several Democrats have sold their souls to the credit card industry, a filibuster would have lost the first vote.

Now, had we progressives gotten our act together earlier, we could have made it much more difficult for the Bidens of the world to do what they did, so I think that the people that really dropped the ball were MoveOn.org, Democracy for America, etc. A large grass-roots campaign a month ahead of the vote might have gotten us in the position to have those 41 votes.

The Bankruptcy Bill should have embarrassed those Democrats that supported it (Hello, Joe), and will not be forgotten.

It's precisely this kind of game-playing that unravels a united effort, principled defense, and critical, aggressive counter-attacks.

Go figure.

Why? Probably not that many consumers were kicking big bucks into Democratic campaigns while trial lawyers are.

Oh, and BTW- as a MoveOn.org member- they WERE kicking up a grassroots campaign several weeks before the vote. Don't blame them, they absolutely DID try to block this fiasco, but it obviously wasn't enough...

Oh, and I don't know if DFA did anything or not, but I'm quite sure MoveOn 'moved on' this to try and get support to block it.

Maybe the Democrats saw that their leadership skills among the Party believers are now at 37%. Hello.

"Remember that 18 Democrats, including the Minority Leader voted with the GOP"

That's it right there. I doubt any Republican would support a filibuster, even if they didn't support the bill, so why even bother.

I would also say there is a bit of "save your ammunition" -- Democrats don't (yet) want to be seen filibustering *every* bill that they are against. If I had only a limited number of filibusters, I'd want one saved for any SS schemes.