Kind of obvious.  From a New York Times blog: 

Politicians like nothing more than a convenient foil, and Democrats locked in a stubborn impasse with Republicans over new rules to govern Wall Street believe they have found a gold-plated one in Goldman Sachs, Carl Hulse reports in The New York Times.

Democrats say the convergence of their push for an overhaul of financial regulation and a prominent federal securities case against the prestigious investment firm is a matter of coincidence, not planning.

But they have seized on emerging details about Goldman’s wheeling and dealing — recounted in a marathon bipartisan questioning of top executives from the firm on Tuesday during a televised Senate hearing — to put pressure on Republicans.

Consumer Reports notices that we’re fighting the CFPA.  They, of course, accuse us of serving the “unbanked.”   Maybe if they had their facts right, their opinions would change.

Senator George Voinovich doesn’t like the unnecessary “motion to proceed” votes.  From The Hill:

Reid also scheduled a vote Monday evening, during the dinner hour, to force senators to show up on the chamber floor, a move that was seen as punishment for Republicans voting to block the Wall Street bill earlier in the day.

Reid could bring lawmakers back to the chamber again after regular hours to discuss Wall Street reform, disrupting their evening schedules.

Some of these tactics have vexed centrist Republicans, whose votes are necessary to pass a reform measure.

Sen. George Voinovich (R-Ohio), who earlier this year bucked his party to advance Democratic jobs legislation and an extension of unemployment benefits, said the repeated votes are “absolutely” counterproductive.

“I don’t think it helps,” he said.

However, according to reports, Voinovich said late Tuesday that even though he’s not likely to vote to begin debate on Wednesday, he will eventually vote for the motion if the talks continue not to be productive.

And Senator Bob Corker is doubtful of a deal:

WASHINGTON – U.S. Sen. Bob Corker raised doubts Tuesday about whether a bipartisan compromise is possible as Democrats and Republicans continued to squabble over a plan to tighten regulation of the nation’s financial system.

“Over the last 24 hours, it just feels like from where I sit, the negotiations are sort of running away from us, and it feels like the goal posts are continually being moved,” the Chattanooga Republican said.

The question is, will there be a deal between Dodd and  Shelby by then.

As expected.  Vote was 57-41.   Another vote tomorrow.    Dems need to make some concessions to get a few moderate Republicans on board.   Tomorrow will be an extremely interesting day.

His latest from a NPR interview: 

Well, what we propose is a system the United States has been living with as a country for more than 30 years. This is how we deal with small bank failures. So our judgment is, again, if in the future we face another crisis and the government has to step in to protect the economy from a financial fire like this, and if the government was exposed to any risk of loss, then the government would impose a fee on large institutions to cover those losses over time. So in a sense what we’re saying is that banks should pay, in a sense, in proportion to the risk they take.

Lots of other general banalties as well.   Listen to the entire interview instead of taking a sleeping pill tonight.

Bill will be considered tomorrow in Senate.

From from Left-wing blogger Matthew Yglesias at the Daily Beast: 

For those of us who wrote extensively about the health-care reform process, the striking thing about the motion of financial reform legislation through the United States Senate is the incredible speed with which it’s being done. Democrats don’t just want a bipartisan bill; they literally cannot pass a bill unless at least one Republican will vote for it. But instead of engaging in the sort of open-ended bargaining that characterized Max Baucus’ ultimately futile “Gang of Six” process, Chris Dodd swiftly moved a bill through committee and Harry Reid has committed to holding cloture votes this week.

He goes on about the mistakes of the health care bill and calls for slowing financial reform down.

Majority Leader Reid has scheduled another “motion to proceed” for today at 4:30.  It will probably fail.   There will be a third vote on Wednesday morning.   This is just to keep making Republicans vote against “financial reform.”