White House Press Briefing May 6

Neal Wolin speaks first on Shelby's amendment that would weaken consumer protections in the Wall Street reforms bill. Note that Shelby's amendment, one of the first taken up today, was defeated.

Shelby Amendment Weakens Wall Street Regulations Bill

Update: Shelby's amendment is defeated 61-38, according to Politico.

The White House says Richard Shelby's new amendment to the financial reform bill would weaken consumer protection oversight.

A new amendment put forward by Senator Shelby on consumer financial protection would not just weaken the bill, it would weaken the status quo.

This new proposal keeps consumer protection oversight under banks' prudential supervisors, whose primary responsibility is safety and soundness of the bank, not consumer welfare. The record on this arrangement is unacceptable. WH

Harry Reid said the Senate will be considering more than 100 amendments, starting with Shelby's, over the next couple of days:

Senators have offered more than 130 amendments to the broad Wall Street reform bill.

Reid said the Senate would immediately consider an amendment offered by Sen. Richard Shelby (Ala.), the ranking Republican on the Banking Committee, and Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.).

Reid said the chamber would then consider an amendment sponsored by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) that would require the Federal Reserve to submit to an audit by the Government Accountability Office.
The Hill

McConnell argues the democrats' Consumer Protection Bureau would be bad for small businesses:

The Shelby-McConnell amendment would establish a Division of Consumer Financial Protection within the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, replacing the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau that Democrats want to establish at the Federal Reserve.

During floor remarks, McConnell argued the Consumer Protection Bureau that Democrats favor at the Fed would ensnare a range of businesses in federal bureaucracy.

“We received a letter yesterday from groups representing hundreds of thousands of businesses — from florists to orthodontists to builders to car dealers — all concerned about the potential impact this new agency would have,” McConnell said. The Hill

The Senate has passed one amendment today. The amendment, which passed with flying colors, ensures that community banks pay a smaller share of FDIC insurance relative to big banks.
Update: Obama comes out strong against Shelby's amendment:

Nearly two years after the collapse on Wall Street that cost over 8 million jobs on Main Street, the American people deserve strong, tough reform that will help prevent another financial crisis. The bill before the Senate demands accountability from Wall Street and includes the strongest consumer protections ever.

Unfortunately, throughout this debate, there have been partisan attempts to obstruct progress and weaken reform. Today, the Senate is considering a Republican amendment that will gut consumer protections and is worse than the status quo. I will not allow amendments like this one written by Wall Street’s lobbyists to pass for reform. This amendment will significantly weaken consumer protection oversight, includes dangerous carve outs for payday lenders, debt collectors, and other financial services operations, and hurts the ability of community and local banks to compete by creating an unlevel playing field with their non-bank competitors.

As I have said throughout this process, I want to continue to work with Democrats and Republicans because protecting the American people should not be a partisan issue. But we must work together in good faith. Alternatives that gut consumer protections and do nothing to empower the American people by cracking down on unfair and predatory practices are unacceptable, and I urge the Senate to vote no on weakening consumer protections and instead stand with the American people.

Collins Says Goldman Arrogant and Evasive

If you missed Goldman Sachs' executives strange and evasive responses, watch here. Democrats are voting today for a third time to move the financial reforms to debate. But once again, republicans look like they'll block it. Susan Collins says republicans want to amend the bill. Richard Shelby says the republicans are still hung up on derivatives and the consumer agency.

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Republicans Block Wall Street Reform Bill

Senate Republicans on Monday blocked a Democratic effort to overhaul the financial system and crack down on Wall Street.

One Senate Democrat, Sen. Ben Nelson (Neb.), joined 40 Republicans in voting against the bill. Nelson had been pushing for a provision backed by Warren Buffett that would have largely exempted existing derivatives contracts from the bill's new rules.

Democrats seized on the party-line, 57-41 test vote to portray Republicans as standing up for Wall Street banks that helped push the economy into the worst recession since the Great Depression. The Hill

Republicans blocked the democrats in moving the bill to the floor for debate. But no doubt, the bill is still getting done. Richard Shelby and Chris Dodd, who are working on the bill say so. These are just political games. This was expected, given that the republicans are the party of no. It just means that there probably will be further negotiations on the bill, something that the democrats were opposed to. Now the democrats can say that republicans stand with Wall Street and republicans can say the bill wasn't good enough for them. All fun and games, puffery and foolery if you ask me. Obama's tweet:

I am deeply disappointed that Senate Republicans voted in a block today against allowing a public debate on Wall Street reform to begin.

John Harwood has it right:

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Dodd and Shelby on Meet the Press April 24

Chris Dodd and Richard Shelby were getting on so well, David Gregory didn't know what to do with himself. The bottom line is financial reform legislation is coming and it's coming soon.

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Most of the roundtable agrees that Arizona's new immigration law is a bad one and John McCain's shame:

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The roundtable on financial reforms and why I respect David Brooks:

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Dodd Talks About Wall Street Reform Bill

Shelby Is Done For Now With Troll Activities

Richard Shelby put 70 of Obama's nominations on hold to get stuff that he wanted.
But he's done now after being publicly chastised:

Shelby's decision to lift his wide-ranging hold means that the Senate can now vote on the nominees. As a result of the holds placed late last week, the Senate could not take action on the nominees unless it was is broken using a cloture vote that requires 60 senators or if the senator lifts the hold. ...
Shelby had placed the holds in protest of the administration's handling of defense and counterterrorism projects slated for his district. The White House had decried the Shelby's hold as "opposition for opposition's sake."

Axelrod on C-SPAN Newsmakers Feb. 6

Watch the full video here.

He discusses Al Franken, the riff between Rahm Emanuel and Eric Holder, Richard Shelby, the troll, and the tea party movement.

He says Congress should move rapidly on the jobs bill and quickly move to healthcare, which means the republicans will probably stall the jobs bill.

Axelrod said Obama will call a bipartisan meeting on jobs next week.

Loathsome Shelby Blocking Defense Department Nominations

Breaking out the giant troll for more bad behavior from the GOP

It's obvious that the republicans believe that even if they don't win elections, they still win:

Sen. Richard Shelby has placed a "hold" on every nomination, which delays the Senate from acting on them. White House spokesman Robert Gibbs on Friday called the tactic a "poster child" for what's broken in Washington and said the senator is preventing qualified nominees from serving in important government positions.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said Shelby's move is holding up about 70 appointments, including a critical top Defense Department position overseeing deployments to the war in Afghanistan. MSNBC

Hardin Montana Wants Gitmo Detainees

Obama Signs Credit Card Reform Bill Video

Republicans Need To Take a Time Out

I'm starting to get perturbed.
Republicans leaders have crossed the line, challenging Obama's eligibility to be president. They are inciting unstable people to possible violence. A Florida congressman, Bill Posey, joins the wingnut list.
I really wish that Obama would shame these politicians in public. The only thing is, nothing would stop them. They will believe want they want to believe as long as it suits their purpose.

Obama's Auto Task Force Goes to Detroit

Will the task force recommend restructuring through bankruptcy? Sen. Richard Shelby of Alabama, from the right right right wing, says Obama should let the automakers fail. Yesterday he said Obama should let the banks fail. Shelby only has one answer for everything. The guy's too extreme for a conversation.

Bob Schieffer's New Washington Unplugged Web Show

In this episode, Sen. Richard Shelby says some republicans will "jump ship" and vote on the stimulus. He won't vote for it unless it's completely revised and that's what he told Obama. Do republicans even realize their stale same old policies are irrelevant, over?
Schieffer also talks to Bill Burton, deputy press secretary, about the Super Bowl at the White House. Members of congress and their families are invited.

Buchanan Rips Fellow Republicans On Auto Bailout

Conservative Patrick Buchanan shames his Southern republican cohorts and he gets kind of stupid about Mitsubishi.

Buchanan: Is the Republican Party so fanatic in its ideology that, rather than sin against a commandment of Milton Friedman, it is willing to see America written forever out of this fantastic market, let millions of jobs vanish and write off the industrial Midwest?

So it would seem. "Companies fail every day, and others take their place," said Sen. Richard Shelby on "Face the Nation."

Presumably, the companies that will "take their place," when GM, Ford and Chrysler die, are German, Japanese or Korean, like the ones lured into Shelby's state of Alabama, with the bait of subsidies free-market Republicans are supposed to abhor.

In 1993, Alabama put together a $258 million package to bring a Mercedes plant in. In 1999, Honda was offered $158 million to build a plant there. In 2002, Alabama won a Hyundai plant by offering a $252 million subsidy.

"We have a number of profitable automakers in America, and they should not be disadvantaged for making wise business decisions while failure is rewarded," says Sen. Jim DeMint of South Carolina.
DeMint is referring to "profitable automakers" like BMW, which sited a plant in Spartanburg, after South Carolina offered the Germans a $150 million subsidy and $80 million to expand.

Be it BMW, Honda, Toyota, Nissan, Mazda, Mitsubishi or Hyundai, the South has become a sanctuary for foreign assembly plants, for which Southern states have been paying subsidies.

Fine. But why this "Let-them-eat-cake!" coldness toward U.S. auto companies? General Motors employs more workers than all these foreign plants combined. And, unlike Mitsubishi, General Motors didn't bomb Pearl Harbor.