Calling Tom Carper Out

Despite how bad the optics are on Wall Street reform for the GOP right now, Democratic Sen. Tom Carper quickly wants Obama to fold his hand.

Democrats should drop areas of disagreement with Republicans from their Wall Street reform bill in order to move forward, Sen. Tom Carper (D-Del.) suggested Wednesday.

Carper, a member of the Senate Finance Committee, said that he thinks a bipartisan deal can be reached on financial regulatory reform legislation, and argued it should be done by dropping the most contentious areas of the bill.

"At the end of the day…we agree on about 80 percent of the stuff here," Carper said during an appearance on Fox News. "I think what we need to do is focus on the 80 percent on which we agree and set aside the 20 percent for another day."

Among those provisions creating friction is a $50 billion, industry-funded pool of money to help wind down financial institutions if they begin to fail. Republicans have derided this provision as a pool for endless bailouts, though they've also maintained other objections to the legislation.

Carper's signaling surrender on that "industry funded pool" because he's the Senator from Delaware, home to a great many financial institutions incorporated in the state for its industry-friendly laws.  Like it or not, if there's a Democrat who will vote this bill down as is, it's going to be Carper, not Nelson or Lincoln or Bayh.

In other words, seeing Carper basically repeat Mitch's talking points from yesterday that he wants to see a deal done is a pretty clear indication he wants that provision dropped, and dropped now.  We'll see how Chris Dodd and the White House respond.