NYT calls it: "Republican opposition to the bill was primarily an attempt to drag down Mr. Obama."

REPUBLICAN-BUTT-KICKING EXCERPT

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/16/opinion/16fri1.html?_r=1&hp">NYT: Congress Passes Financial Reform

"Republican opponents would have you believe that lack of bipartisanship was evidence of the bill’s unworthiness, but the margin of victory was really about partisan politics and not the bill’s content. That made the vote an even greater victory for Mr. Obama, who has had to fight for every inch of progress against entrenched Republicans (who have been willing to deny unemployment benefits to millions of Americans rather than cooperate with Democrats on anything).

As was the case with last year’s economic stimulus and this year’s health care overhaul, Republican opposition to the bill was primarily an attempt to drag down Mr. Obama by killing any legislative accomplishment.

When that effort was headed for failure, Republican leaders disparaged the bill on ideological grounds. On Thursday, Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Republican leader, lashed out at what he called a “government-driven solution,” while the senior Republican on the banking committee, Richard Shelby of Alabama, bemoaned “vast new bureaucracies.”

Those are convenient and time-tested bugaboos to campaign by, but they ignore the urgent needs the bill addresses, and its achievements. Those include resolution procedures to help ensure that shareholders and creditors — not taxpayers — bear the losses when big financial institutions fail; new capital requirements for banks and other curbs to help quell speculative excess, including the regulation of derivatives and restrictions on proprietary trading."

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/16/opinion/16fri1.html?_r=1&hp">More at link: NYT