Legal Commentary

How Democrats Lost The 2010 Election

By Big Tent Democrat

Kevin Drum digs out this June 4, 2009 report by the NYTimes Stephen Labaton (when everyone was still optimistic about Dem political fortunes) that illustrates how Democrats lost the 2010 election:

President Obama took the opportunity in a bill-signing ceremony last month to remind Congress “to do what we were actually sent here to do — and that is to stand up to the special interests, and stand up for the American people.” But Mr. Obama did not mention that the measure he was signing, the Helping Families Save Their Homes Act, was missing its centerpiece: a change in bankruptcy law he once championed that would have given judges the power to lower the amount owed on a home loan.

It had been stripped out three weeks earlier in a showdown between Senate Democrats and the nation’s banks, including many that are getting big government bailouts. [. . .] Throughout it all, the banks took advantage of the Obama administration’s seeming ambivalence. Despite its occasional populist rhetoric, the White House was conspicuously absent from weeks of pivotal negotiations this spring.

[More...]

“This would have been a much different deal if Obama had pressed it,” said Camden R. Fine, head of the Independent Community Bankers of America and one of the chief lobbyists opposing the bankruptcy change. “The fact that Obama effectively sat it out helped us a great deal.” [. . . ] Moreover, Timothy F. Geithner, the Treasury secretary, did not seem to share Mr. Obama’s enthusiasm for the bankruptcy change. Mr. Geithner was lobbied by the industry early.

This is a microcosm of the past two years and the Dem cowardice, from the White House on down, in its dealings with Wall Street. Labaton quotes Senator Sheldon Whitehouse saying "This is one of the most extreme examples I have seen of a special interest wielding its power for the special interest of a few against the general benefit of millions of homeowners and thousands of communities now being devastated by foreclosure.” More examples have followed.

And this, as much as anything, is why Dems will be pummelled in November. Not because the GOP is better - indeed it is worse- but the Dems are in charge. And they will take the hit.

Speaking for me only

Full post as published by TalkLeft on August 12, 2010 (boomark / email).