Financial Reform Update

For the latest on the progress of Financial Reform, one of the sources we’ve been following is our old friend Brian Beutler, who has a less rosy report than some that emerged earlier this week:

What had been a fairly non-contentious debate over Wall Street reform legislation nearly came off the rails on Tuesday after Republicans–tacitly backed (or at least unimpeded) by top Democrats–used Senate rules to block votes on far-reaching, consumer-friendly amendments, portending a potential progressive revolt.

Read the whole thing.

Update-Update

Here’s Andrew Leonard from Salon.com responding to Brian’s report, with perhaps stronger language:

Where is President Obama? Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D.-Nev., has called for a 2 p.m. EDT cloture vote Wednesday afternoon to end debate on the bank reform bill. But whether or not 60 votes can be found to stop either a Republican or a Democratic filibuster is practically irrelevant, because one of the most important parts of the bill, derivatives regulation, has been gutted by conservative Republicans working in collusion with top Democrats.