Are you ready for some "feeble" reform??

According to Robert Kuttner, economist, the Democrats had a very fractious meeting yesterday. Some wanted to bring the financial reform bill to the floor for amendments but Chris Dodd wanted to work out a "bi-partisan" bill with Richard Shelby.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-kuttner/financial-reform-at-a-cro_b_549424.html

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On Thursday, there was an uncharacteristically fractious meeting of the Senate Democratic Caucus. On one side, leading progressives such as Maria Cantwell, Ted Kaufman, Dick Durbin, Byron Dorgan, and Jeff Merkley, argued that this was a moment to put forward floor amendments that would both strengthen the bill and force Republicans to take difficult votes either backing reforms or identifying themselves with Wall Street.

But the Banking Committee Chairman, Chris Dodd, was more inclined to try and strike deal over the weekend with his Republican counterpart, Richard Shelby, for a bipartisan bill. The price of this would be weaker provisions on derivatives, consumer protection, and on resolving failed large banks. The political price would be that progressives don't get to offer floor amendments. Under Dodd's scheme, which is favored by Obama's legislative and economic advisers, the Senate would immediately vote to take up the bill, and would then vote cloture by a wide bipartisan margin. The bill -- still a shell with details to be filled in later -- would go directly to the House, where the House-passed bill would become the vehicle for the final measure.

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What stands in the way of this bipartisan deal is the resolve of the Senate progressives and the personal dilemma of the Senate Democratic leader, Harry Reid. Senator Reid faces a very difficult re-election in Nevada this November. He needs to present himself as a fighter for the common American, not as an agent of Wall Street. If Reid weighs in hard on Dodd, and if Obama gets personally engaged, he can still head off a deal with Shelby and the Republicans for a backroom deal and a weakened bill.

It would be nice if somebody whose phone calls Obama still takes -- Reid, Dick Durbin, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi -- broke through the wall that Rahm Emanuel has put up and got the president to play a personal role. Otherwise, this could be one of those dreadful lost moments of reform and progressive triumph.

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Capitulation we can believe in ... that always, on the balance, favors BIG BUSINESS.

just put it back in place.

Let your reps know your views.

Call to support the Brown-Kaufman safe banking act.

Or give up and do nothing.

So there's our game plan. I don't think this article is doom and gloom. Call your Senators.

will we meet them halfway, in the spirit of holy bipartisanship?

Bipartisanship = Democrats enacting the Republican agenda.