from Flopping Aces

Well, whadda ya know….the Republicans held firm against a cloture vote on the Democrat’s financial reform bill.

For the moment, Republicans have successfully beaten back the Democrat financial regulation overhaul, defeating a cloture motion to begin debate on the partisan bill with 42 votes.

Sen. Bob Corker (R., Tenn.), who has been most active in working with Democrats on the bill, voted no on cloture. So did other Republican question marks, including the Maine Ladies Collins and Snowe, Chuck Grassley (R., Iowa), who voted for Democratic derivatives language in committee, and Scott Brown (R., Mass.).

In somewhat of a surprise move, Sen. Ben Nelson (D., Neb.) joined the Republican filibuster, which means the Democrats will now need two defectors to move ahead.

Nelson joined the Republicans because of language sought by Warren Buffet:

Buffett wanted a provision that would exempt existing derivative contracts from new rules.

And once removed he will go scurrying back to his friends on the left, hell….the man proved he has the spine of a jellyfish on the abortion issue so there is no counting on that man.

What do the Republicans want changed? A few things but most importantly on how the fed handles failing businesses. The way the current bill is written the fed will put 50 billion away for failing banks but the Republicans want that eliminated completely so no bail outs occur.

Basically saying that no business is too big to fail, and that is right on the money.

Jeff at Protein Wisdom thinks the Democrats will move onto immigration for a number of reasons:

The move to push immigration reform center stage at a time of high unemployment and unsustainable debt — made worse by enormous increases in federal entitlement spending — will be a cynical gamble on the part of Democrats, who realize that come November, they are likely to lose significant numbers in Congress anyway, and so will make a last ditch effort to swing public perception back in their favor by casting their opponents as anti-immigrant. Even should they fail, the thinking goes, they’ll help perpetuate a branding of Tea Partiers as fringe actors and angry white Christian rednecks — marketing being, in a country filled with low-information voters (who, thanks to the self-esteem movement and the dumbing down of civic education, believe themselves to be “politically active” and “aware”), the most important aspect of politics.

And the GOP establishment and its pragmatist mouthpieces — always on the lookout to find a defensive posture from which to dignify such cynical attacks — might just play right into the hands of Democrats by their inevitable ritual scapegoating of at least one or two vocal conservatives, who they’ll deem unclean.

Will the GOP play right into their hands tho? Or have they learned?

We shall see.