Why should a Capitalist-pig who borrows money to exploit others be people that are too lazy to help themselves
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In the wake of Monday's failed vote on Wall Street reform, Democratic
leaders are planning a series of votes on the same bill until it passes -
confident that Republicans can't hold together for long.
And Democrats believe they've got an ace in the hole: Lloyd Blankfein, the
Goldman Sachs CEO.
Blankfein is sure to face a barrage of criticism over his company's actions
in a Senate hearing Tuesday - and shine a light on some of the very
practices that Democrats say the regulatory reform bill is meant to abolish.
Votes could come as early as Tuesday and Wednesday, Senate Democratic aides
said, adding that they'll keep voting until they can peel off at least one
or two moderate Republicans who won't want to take a PR hit over blocking
the reform bill.
But Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell had promised to hold his members
together against the Democratic bill - and he succeeded Monday, blocking a
Democratic effort to open debate on the bill.
And one of the most likely targets of the Democrats' effort to keep voting
until they flip a moderate - Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) - made clear that
she didn't appreciate Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's tactics.
"Why did we have the vote today?" said Snowe, who noted that the
negotiations between Senate Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd (D-Conn.)
and Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Ala.) are still going on. "It didn't serve a
purpose, frankly, other than politics. And unfortunately, these days, here
in the United States Senate, regrettably, it's politics trumping policy. I
don't understand it."
The vote was 57-41, with all the Republicans who were present joined by Sen.
Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) in voting no. Democrats needed 60 votes to open debate
on the reform legislation.
In a statement, Nelson said he was worried about unintended consequences in
the bill that could hit small businesses, not just the Wall Street titans
that caused the 2008 global meltdown in the first place.
But Nelson had also pushed for an exemption - sought by Warren Buffett's
Berkshire Hathaway - for firms with existing derivatives contracts from
having to post billions of dollars in collateral. Dodd said he spoke with
Nelson on the floor before the vote to explain why such an exemption was
unacceptable and that the Treasury Department was working on potential
compromise language.
Nelson said his final vote on the bill isn't guaranteed. "I'm waiting to see
what the final version will be, just like everybody else. I don't know,"
Nelson said.
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