[credit: Tom Toles, Washington Post]
Democrats managed to eek out a Wall Street regulatory bill after weeks of contentious negotiations, minus a truly tough prohibition against derivative trading by big banks. They were not successful in passing an extenuation of jobless benefits. The Repugnant filibuster held tight, and majority leader Reid gave up the fight on Thursday. Once again, that arch hypocritical spy in the Democratic caucus Ben Nelson (?-NE) was at the epicenter of the defeat. His refusal to commit left the Demos 2 votes short of 60. Despite trimming the bill down from $134 billion to $33 billion, not a single Repugnant was willing to support extending benefits to Americans unemployed for more than six months. Go fish...but not in the Gulf.