Will the GOP block financial reform to extract revenge for healthcare? John McCain, grumpy on a good day, was outright cranky over the passage of healthcare reform, promising "no co-operation for the rest of the year" on any legislation.
But not all Republicans agree they should be the "party of no". The conservative author (and former George W Bush speechwriter) David Frum criticised fellow Republicans for trying to turn healthcare reform into Obama's Waterloo instead of trying to get their ideas included in the bill. According to Frum, the result was that "when we went for all the marbles, we ended with none". Frum's remarks generated so much heat among conservatives that he resigned from the American Enterprise Institute before the week was out.
Emboldened by their success, Barack Obama and his allies on Capitol Hill wasted little time in placing financial reform next on the agenda. They are betting that a few Republicans will resist the temptation to go for all the marbles by simply opposing any bill.
Two Republican senators had already broken ranks to negotiate a bill with Democrat Chris Dodd, who chairs the Senate finance committee. Last week, Dodd decided to press the issue by releasing his own draft legislation, though he was careful to leave the door open for further negotiations with his Republican colleagues. Dodd's bill, which runs 1,120 pages, would create a new consumer protection watchdog, regulate the exotic derivatives that have spiralled out of control and build a firewall between commercial banking and investment banking.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2010/mar/28/financial-reform-republicans