By this time we all know how very very difficult it is to get anything done in the U.S. Senate, so it is not surprising that Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn., was upset about President Obamas proposals regarding bankswhat businesses they can or cannot be in under certain conditions and how big they should be.
One can understand the annoyance of the soon to be retired senior senator from the Nutmeg state who is chairman of the Senate Banking Committee. After all, members of his committee have been paired off for months working on different facets of financial reform so that the Senate can have a bipartisan solution to hold up to the world.
Never mind that by the time Dodds committee finally puts something out, whatever the plan is will have taken longer to gestate than an elephant. And the similarity, friends, is not likely to end there.
So much time will have gone by that we will almost have forgotten what the impetus for financial reform wasand maybe thats the point. After all, banks are minting money again (although still not lending it), bank bonuses are in the pre-meltdown range (if not higher) and money from bank lobbyists is gushing.
Its obviously What, me worry? time again in the good old U.S.A.
So what does the president do when these months-long negotiations between Banking Committee members are reaching a critical point? He comes along and crashes the party.
