Thanks for the summary.

Scott Brown could be crucial. IIRC, the first time he gave cover to the Maine twins to make sure this passed cloture easily. His arguments against this due to the taxes are making Snowe and Collins iffy. He could be crucial in leading them in the right direction. Let Grassley stand alone if he wants to be all bipartisan.

If Brown holds firm this time around, he could have played this as best he possibly could and look like a political genius. The first time around he backed cloture, irritating conservatives, but winning over the liberal electorate in his state. Now he has an opportunity to back away, citing his commitment to avoid new taxes, and show some backbone for his conservative supporters nationally. If the bill fails without his support, he can still go back to Massachusetts and tell the squishes and lefties that he did what he could, he supported the effort in good faith, but the Beltway insiders stuffed it full of taxes.

Brown has a chance to kill this thing… Or maybe more accurately put, Brown’s refusal gives this a chance to die. If some Dem. pressure or bribe makes him weaken and decide to support this again, we’re definitely screwed. Its now a question of whether he is truly committed against raising taxes, or if his vote is for sale.

of Obama’s choices for the Byrd replacement. Guaranteed it won’t be what was previously termed a Blue Dog.

the words “Dodd” “Frank” and “dance” conjures up disturbing images…….of course this nonsense should be voted down, as well as any other form of stealth tax increase they try to camoflage as “reform”– any of them who considers a yes vote needs to know that the voters are finally developing a long memory and will deal with the “tax mongers” appropriately at the next election……

If this doesn’t get passed before July 4, it’s going to be next to impossible to pass given the remainder of the Senate calendar and the November elections looming only 4 months away. Make the calls to Grassley as well. We need all the GOP Senators to hold the line because we can’t count on any Democrats like Nelson, Finegold, Cantwell or a Byrd replacement. Remember the events of Obamacare.

I’m a constituent of Senator Grassley and just sent him an email asking him to rationalize his logic on this issue — I urged him to vote against cloture.

to believe for a moment that this piece of crap law might be killed. But, I’ve been stood up too many times this year by these jokers.

before he died. Harry Reid has it right there in his pocket. Honest.

This is a battle worth fighting; indeed, a hill worth dying on. I hope, but I don’t believe.

This is a battle worth fighting; indeed, a hill worth dying on. I hope, but I don’t believe.

The Weekly Standard has an excellent piece on this “tax”, pointing out that it’s even worse than a tax. It’s an arbitrary “assessment”, the amount of which is determined, not by some predicatable percentage like a tax, but at the whim of federal bureaucrats deciding on a number for each firm.

http://weeklystandard.com/blogs/dodd-frank-overreach

They are also reporting that the Dems are reopening the conference committee and will jettison this $19 billion fee. This presumably locks in Brown, Snowe, and Collins.

Subject: NO
Action: Speak in unision
Follow-up: Repeat continuously through 01/02/2011
Conclusion: Expand winning margins 11/02/2010

The Democrats are having trouble agreeing amone themselves as to how to proceed. This seems to be similar to their difficulty with how to craft obamacare.

Manchin has previously made clear his interest in the seat. Word is that he will appoint a “seat warmer” and run in 2012. He’s a fairly popular Gov. – what passes for a conservative Democrat. There’s zero chance of having a Republican appointed to the seat and about the same chance of having one win the seat in 2012. He would be miles better than Byrd or Rockefeller.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704103904575336823131606734.html?mod=rss_whats_news_us

Although Title XII has not attracted much attention, it may, in the long run, have greater consequences than more well-known titles.

Title XII sets up a system to provide grants to ACORN-like organizations to provide ‘education’ and small loans to poor people and also grants to cover losses when these borrowers don’t pay off their loans.

Imagine, ACORN giving $2,500 installment loans to voters, with funding to drive them to the polls, and more funding to pay off the loans.

Seem unbelievable? See: http://www.capital-flow-watch.net/eespk