Republicans stonewall Dems on Financial Reform Bill..

Repubs derail Dems Financial Reform Test Vote

Republicans are in full offensive mode. Lindsay Graham dropped the hammer on democratic Senators John Kerry, Harry Reid and Indy Joe Lieberman. On Friday Graham announced he would withdraw support for Democrat’s much vaunted Climate Change Legislation IF they shelve Climate legislation shifting their focus exclusively to “Immigration legislation”.. the story we wrote about the other day . (at this link): Graham withdraws support for climate legislation.

From here on in Republicans will be seen stone by stone gaining more procedural ground from democrats. Republicans stood together Monday to successfully block lawmakers from moving ahead with sweeping legislation to overhaul U.S. financial markets, a serious miscalculation of the Obama administration’s top domestic policy priority.

Apparently, the article in the WSJ is covering up the seriousness of this breach of bipartisanship. To me, the Republicans have by way of Senator Graham thrown down the gauntlet and the legislative War is on between the Republicans who, today, were joined in the stonewalling of the Test Vote by a defecting democrat, Senator Ben Nelson (D) Nebraska.

“The Senate voted 57-41 on a procedural measure allowing lawmakers to move toward debate on financial regulatory overhaul legislation, falling short of the 60 votes needed. All GOP senators present voted against invoking cloture, joined by at least one Democrat, Sen. Ben Nelson (D., Neb.).”

“The partisan vote underscores the high political stakes surrounding the legislation, which would subject the nation’s financial institutions to new consumer and capital rules, boost regulation of derivatives and allow the government to respond more aggressively to crises in the financial system. If enacted, it would represent the most sweeping changes to regulation of financial markets since the Great Depression.”

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Both parties looked to secure gains from the vote. Republicans hoped to use their refusal to break ranks to strengthen their position in ongoing negotiations between the parties. Democrats, meanwhile were stunned at the veracity of the Repubs resolve.

At the time of this writing… the original article posted at the WSJ’s has now been scrubbed. This link is a sanitized version for your purview in lieu of the facts as they originally were reported at the top of the page.

It’s obvious the full effect of the Republican STING took a while for the Dems to realize what had just happened to them… Oh, well!!!!

Rahm must be busy on the phone tonight dialing up Ben Nelson… Hopefully, Nelson’s Blue Cross is current and his Life Insurance premiums are up to date . If Nelson survives the defection and breaking of ranks, who know- Nelson could start a trend!

Here is more info regarding Graham as the “spoiler” extraordinare ruining Obama’s celebration plans for a post passed Climate Legislation hoopdedoo.

“Graham’s change of heart scuttled a planned announcement of the bill on Monday, when the three Senators had been set to share the stage with executives from energy and oil companies to introduce their legislation. Kerry and Lieberman said they would continue working toward the legislation, and White House climate czar Carol Browner said in a statement that the Administration would support “both comprehensive energy independence and immigration-reform legislation.” But losing Graham – one of the few Republicans in Congress who still seems to believe in tackling global warming through curbing carbon emissions – is a body blow for climate and energy legislation, which was already facing a vertical battle in Congress.”

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YAHOO

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