Good Little Servants

by digby

The DLC corporate lackeys and their friends in the GOP earned their bribes last night:

A bipartisan coalition in the House voted late Thursday to make it easier for corporations to engage in complex derivatives trades without government restrictions, eroding the reach of proposed regulations to govern Wall Street.
Democratic attempts to toughen the legislation failed.

Though not major setbacks, the votes illustrated the difficulties facing House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank and the Obama administration as they seek to pass legislation aimed at preventing a recurrence of last year’s Wall Street crisis.

Yeah, corruption and fealty to the malefactors of great wealth makes it difficult to pass financial regulation all right. And anyway, why should the instruments that nearly brought down the entire global economy be regulated? Stifles free enterprise, dontcha know.

Today is the day they will vote on what I consider to be the most politically important piece of reform in the legislation, the new independent Consumer Finance Protection Agency. Naturally, it’s also threatened by the same forces for money who really believe that protecting corporations from their customers is still the path to prosperity:

Key votes loomed ahead, with a final vote on the sweeping legislation scheduled Friday.

Democrats hoped to fend off an amendment Friday that would eliminate the creation of an independent Consumer Finance Protection Agency. The agency is a central element of the Democrats’ legislation and the Obama administration’s proposed regulatory changes.

The amendment was offered by Rep. Walt Minnick, a conservative Democrat from Idaho, and seven other centrist Democrats. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which has been running national television ads against the creation of a consumer agency, said it would base its support for lawmakers in next year’s elections, in part, on how they voted on the amendment.

“I think we’re going to beat the Minnick amendment, but it’s a real test,” Frank, D-Mass., said Thursday. Creating a consumer agency is a top priority for consumer groups and for labor organizations such as the AFL-CIO.

Watch that one. Those votes will tell you which people are working for the people and which ones are working for their corporate masters. It will be very clarifying.

Update: The Minnick Amendment was defeated. Whew.

But 33 Democrats voted for it. All 33 of them have proven that that they aren’t “fiscal hawks” or even cultural conservatives. This new agency has nothing to do with any of that. They are, ultimately, servants of corporate power. And if I were a Republican challenger I’d go full on populist and nail them with this vote.

Of course, if I were a Democratic challenger I’d do the same thing. Every Republican voted for it.

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