Financial Watch

“The battle over reshaping the country’s financial regulation escalated on several fronts Wednesday, with President Obama stepping up his personal efforts to win Senate passage of an ambitious bill while senators from both parties fought to claim the anti-Wall Street mantle. After a White House meeting between Obama and congressional leaders, Republican leaders criticized the Democrats’ proposal for leaving the door open to future bailouts of big financial firms. But the president, who has turned his attention to the financial overhaul after winning passage of health-care legislation, said he was confident that a bipartisan bill could be worked out to ensure that the economy is protected from the collapse of large financial companies.”

“House Republicans are launching a new effort to craft an election-year mission statement that appears to be part ‘Contract With America’ and part ‘American Idol,’” Roll Call reports. “GOP Members said the ideas that will eventually become the basis for their initiative – the working title is the ‘Commitment to America’ – will come largely from outside Washington and largely online, but they pledged that reforming the legislative process would be a top priority.”

“The scant Republican support Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) secured last summer that proved crucial for passage of the House’s climate change bill has eroded as the midterm elections draw near – enough so that she likely would be short of votes if the same measure were on the floor today,” Roll Call writes.