Senate Dems to move bankruptcy bill

[Nathan Newman]

----- Original Message -----
From: "Doug Henwood" <dhenwood at panix.com>
>Biden from the stater of MBNA, I mean Delaware, will probably be on the
>conference committee, so he'll be pushing to save the deal, but Tom Delay
>and Dick Armey may just help kill it.   All I can say is that if Trent Lott
>had been running the conference committee on the Senate side, they would
>have happily resolved the issues in favor of the House version- something
>that the Dems are unlikely to do.

-Uh, I thought a divided Senate is what kept the bill bottled up, and
-now that it's got a Dem majority, Daschle says he wants to deliver
-something to the president. Sounds like Cockburn may be right about
-the virtues of gridlock.

Oh, there were virtues of gridlock, but not on this point.  The conference
committee dispute would have been resolved at some point and less favorably
for consumers on the bankruptcy bill.  And far worse on judicial
nominations, energy policy and other issues.

If nothing else, having the oil companies  subpeoned to testify about dirty
dealings around energy policy will be fun to watch.  A lot of good
progressive Dems with subcommittees will be able to highlight issues through
committee hearings on issues that would never have gotten any media play.

--- Nathan Newman