A Gift For Mrs Lincoln
by digby
In case anyone wonders why in the hell Maria Cantwell was out there laboring to strengthen Blanche Lincoln’s derivative amendment while Lincoln gaped like a deer in the headlights, read this from dday:
It’s very clear that Cantwell, not Lincoln, was the driving force behind the derivatives title. According to Business Week, Lincoln couldn’t even defend her own derivatives proposal at a Democratic caucus meeting, and Cantwell had to step in and bail her out. Lincoln was clearly fed the strong language, when she was planning a much weaker proposal with Saxby Chambliss (R-GA), to project an image of a populist Wall Street reformer for her suddenly tough primary challenge from Bill Halter.
I wondered why Cantwell became the derivatives avenging angel. Apparently,somebody had to clean up the mess and Lincoln just wasn’t up for the task. dday writes:
The entire Lincoln derivatives issue was a charade. And this is proven by her muted response to a fight over the potential loophole, as well as the virtual certainty of weakening in conference, again without a peep from her.
Someone should ask Lincoln to explain all this. Or just explain what section 716 is. It would be fun to watch anyway.
Sadly, dday also goes on to say that the banks are very sure that this will go in conference and then will never see the light of day. They really, really didn’t want this one.
Update: John Warner told Andrea Mitchell that the derivatives language will be out of the final bill. So there you go.
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