Baby steps
by digby
This is a step in the right direction. Via Huffpost Hill:
In what counts as a loss for the owners of Congress, a bill from Rep. Jim Himes (D-Hedgefundistan) garnered a ton more opposition this afternoon than its backers had expected. It sailed through committee 53-6 this spring, but since then liberals have organized against it.
Himes, who has been beefing with HuffPost over our coverage of his swaps deregulation, lamented the state of affairs on the floor. After noting how easily the bill passed last year, he said, “This year, exactly the same bill comes before us and we’ve ginned up the press, we’ve ginned up the bloggers. This has become a ‘gift to Wall Street.’ What is different? What is different from what passed happily in a bipartisan fashion last Congress?” Himes wondered. “What has changed is we no longer do the hard work of finding finely balanced regulation like we do on water or on air. In financial services, in Dodd-Frank today, we have a morality play.”
If it was a morality play, the forces of darkness still triumphed, 292-122, but a majority of Democrats voted no.
Cold comfort, but at least most of the Dems got the word. That wouldn’t have happened a year or so ago.
I don’t know how long it’s going to take to get a true progressive faction in the House that can operate with the same cohesion and effectiveness that the Tea Partiers have in the GOP. But it’s clear we need one. And they do seem to be learning.
*And no this does not mean we don’t need to be organizing outside the political system. But you simply cannot leave the state in the hands of the conservatives in both parties. Huge mistake.
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