Sen. Chris Dodd, the jolly legislator who spent his career partnering with Ted Kennedy in roistering and promoting the liberal agenda, is spending the most significant moment of his political widowerhood by turning into a puddle of goo. Charged with reforming the banking system–what he has called “one of the two most important issues of our time”–Dodd, who has announced his retirement from the Senate, seems to be collapsing in the face of an onslaught of lobbying, and is leaning to taking one of the key provisions of the plan—creating a Consumer Financial Protection Agency—and turning what ought to be a ferocious and independent tiger into part of the Department of the Treasury. Some valediction
Forget for a moment that the Consumer Financial Protection Agency has earned the staunch backing of Elizabeth Warren, whose reputation for intelligence and integrity is burnished every time she opens her mouth. Just think about what we’ve learned about the working of government during the last two years. The Department of the Treasury exists to promote the general welfare and well-being of the banks. As a matter of philosophy and religion, Treasury believes strong banks mean a strong America. I don’t think this implies that Treasury is complicit in chicanery or that even it would make sense for Treasury to believe anything different, and as anybody who worked for Lehman Brothers can tell you, Treasury doesn’t roll over just because a bank wants it to. But read a book like Too Big to Fail by Andrew Ross Sorkin and it will be clear: placing a consumer advocacy within Treasury is either to consign it to oblivion or to invite it to be compromised. If this agency is to do all the good it needs to, it’s mission can’t be subsumed under anyone else’s agenda.
One reason Dodd is pressing for this alternative is that he is emulating the fool’s errand President Obama has continued to pursue, and is seeking bipartisan support. Never has there been a moment when an enemy–fat cat bankers–presented a riper target of opportunity. Why Dodd and Obama and the Democrats are holding their fire in favor of pursuing some weird, spiritual quest for zen bipartisanship is a stumper.