Sen. Bob Corker (R-TN) is no longer optimistic that the Senate can reach a deal on financial reform, but at the same time retiring Sen. George Voinovich (R-OH) says there’s only so much more delaying that can go on before he joins with Democrats in moving the bill to the Senate floor.
This all comes after Republicans again blocked the bill in a vote late this afternoon.
Here’s Brian Beutler’s report on the afternoon’s late developments.
Last week the anti-financial reform astroturf group Stop Too Big Too Fail, which is masquerading as pro-reform, was using MIT economist Simon Johnson’s name and image to disguise their efforts, until he demanded they stop.
Now, in a new ad campaign, the group is using Robert Reich’s image and a quote of his taken out of context. Reich tells TPMmuckraker that the group is “cynically and purposefully distorting what I said.”
Senators tried to get Goldman Sachs executives to apologize or at least admit regret for its role in the financial crisis. No dice, the executives say.
Republican congressmen implicitly concede that they can’t rein in the RNC by simply demanding the party cease and desist from sending out fake census mailers. Instead, GOP lawmakers will help rewrite the law to close any loophole the RNC might be exploiting.
And we finally have some clue as to what loophole the RNC is using here, according to a GOP House aide. The law applies to mailings that have “census” on the envelope. The RNC’s mailing doesn’t: the word “census” appears through the window of the envelope but not on the envelope. Clever, uh?
I wanted to flag a new feature we rolled out Monday evening, one that I think will make it easier to navigate the site. As TPM has grown, we produce more and more reporting every day. And as the volume has grown, it’s become an increasing challenge to effectively ‘surface’ (design/journo jargon du jour) it all effectively on our front page. We’re in the process of doing a more thorough-going redesign of the site. But we’ve started with a simple new feature that I already became addicted to when it was on our staging site.
If you look down beneath the main feature story on the right you’ll see our new “Inside TPM” section. It’s simple. As each new post on any of our sites appears, it shows up at the top of that section and scrolls down chronologically as new stuff appears. Not exactly a revolutionary concept. Sort of back to the future, in a way. But devilishly effective for not missing any of the stories our reporters are working on.
Tell us what you think. Whether it makes it easier for you to navigate the site.
Even Republican congressmen are now denouncing the RNC’s fake census mailer that we first reported yesterday.
A classic moment in the Goldman Sachs hearing this morning when Senate government affairs subcommittee chairman Carl Levin (D-MI) demanded a yes or no answer to this question: “Should Goldman Sachs be trying to sell a shitty deal?” Watch.
I hadn’t realized that Colbert had gotten in on the livestock for health care snark. And he’s not satisfied with just chickens! See the video.