Hate To Say I Told You So

But I've said a number of times that financial reform legislation was not going to pass, and now the bill is all but dead.

After months of negotiation and debate, far-reaching legislation to overhaul the rules of Wall Street failed a key test vote in the Senate on Wednesday, casting a shadow over Democratic efforts to push the effort forward.

The measure aims to stop bailouts, shine a light on complex financial products and strengthen consumer protection.

The vote was 57 to 42. Under Senate rules, Democrats needed 60 votes to move ahead to a final vote.
Three Democrats voted against the legislation, including Maria Cantwell of Washington and Russ Feingold of Wisconsin.

"After thirty years of giving in to the wishes of Wall Street lobbyists, Congress needs to finally enact tough reforms to prevent Wall Street from driving our economy into the ditch again," Feingold said in a statement. "As the bill stands, it fails that test."

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., also cast a "no" vote at the end, which under Senate rules allows him to bring the measure up for another vote.

Earlier, Reid had said he wanted a final vote by the end of the week. But now the next steps are unclear.

It also means 38 of the 41 Republicans blocked the bill, as usual.  And this is straight into useful idiots territory:  Democrats Russ Feingold made good on his promise to filibuster legislation that wasn't tough enough, and so did Maria Cantwell.

At this point, the bill is pretty much dead.  So now, we have no reform.  That's not going to help the Democrats in November.

[UPDATE] BooMan has slightly more optimism than I do.  He points out that Cantwell and Feingold can be flipped, and the 60th vote would then be Reid himself.  This means that the bill has to get better now, not worse.

We'll see.