But the bill didn't become law, for a simple reason: Democrats opposed it on a party-line vote in the committee, signaling that this would be a partisan issue. Republicans, tied in knots by the tight Democratic opposition, couldn't even get the Senate to vote on the matter.
All I can say is, the Republicans should have pushed the issue. If they felt that it was so important to get the bill accepted, they should have tried their best to make it happen.
They controlled the majority of the Senate when the bill was proposed. If the majority party of the Senate is so powerless, then I don't understand why Republicans worry at all about having lost the majority in the Senate. Clearly they can be just as powerful as a minority party, if not more so.
Anyway, just imagine if Republicans had really tried to force the issue, and the Democrats, assuming they were so dead set on defeating the bill, had been forced to filibuster. Imagine how bad that would have looked now. I find it hard to believe that Obama would have been ahead in the polls, if Republicans could prove that they really did try to regulate Fannie and Freddie, but the Democrats stopped it by filibustering.
But the Republicans didn't force the issue. All they say is that they couldn't do it, because the Democrats would have filibustered. That sounds very much like putting at least part of the blame on someone else. It is like saying that you had the right idea, and you had slightly more people backing you up than your opponents had, but things might have gotten ugly if you had really tried to defeat your opponents, so it is their fault that you didn't even try.
Roger, you said previously that the Democrats must bear all the blame for the current crisis. I think that such a stand is absolutely bound to be partisan and wrong, considering the Republicans have had the President for the last eight years and have had majorities in both the Senate and the House for parts of the President's term.
But since you seem to be determined to prove that it was all the Democrats' faults that the crisis has happened, you have to look for whatever evidence you can find to back up your claim. You have to concentrate on the bad things the Democrats did and disregard any mistakes that the Republicans did. Since Fannie and Freddie is where the Democrats are most vulnerable, you will have to argue that the crisis is all about Fannie and Freddie and ultimately all about Democratic interference.
That is why I so much want to listen to Alcyone now. Alcyone is, by her own admission, not "neutral" in this debate. She is definitely a left-leaning person, and it is no secret that she hopes that Barack Obama will be elected President. But Alcyone does her very, very, very best to look at all the issues from both sides. I find that so admirable. And that is why, right now, I so much more want to hear Alcyone's analysis of the situation than I want to hear yours.
Ann
