Maddow: ConservaDems Against Stopping Banks From Gouging Consumers

[Purveyor]

In another sign that conservative Blue Dog Democrats in Congress may prove to be a larger obstacle to the president's agenda than the Republican minority, Blue Dogs are opposing the president's plan to create a Consumer Financial Protection Agency to oversee the financial markets.

Instead, as Politico reported, they are rallying around an alternative plan put forward by Rep. Walter Minnick, a freshman Democrat from Idaho. Minnick's alternative plan would eliminate the protection agency and leave in place the existing patchwork of various regulatory bodies, who would come together in an advisory council "that will have the power of suggestion, not actually any power of enforcement," as MSNBC's Rachel Maddow put it.

That attempt to water down financial reform drew a sharp rebuke from Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA), who heads the House Financial Services Committee on which Minnick sits. Frank told the Huffington Post he was "absolutely opposed" to Minnick's proposal.

"As soon as I saw the story, I called Minnick and said, 'You've really gotta retract it,'" Frank told HuffPo.

"We did not know this was coming," the lead sponsor of the CFPA in the committee, Rep. Brad Miller (D-NC), told HuffPo. "An advisory committee is a long way from a watchdog agency with the power to set rules and enforce them."

MORE...

http://rawstory.com/blog/2009/09/blue-dogs-consumer-protection/

[polichick]

1. Progressive Dems will have to keep up the ads calling out these faux Dems...

Blue dogs need to be run out of town asap.

[Demeter]

2. Or At Least Come Out of their Closet and Cross the Aisle

if they really want to be GOP, they have to do so openly.