James Pethokoukis

The political calculus for U.S. financial reform is suddenly more complicated. Last Friday’s 5 a.m. Capitol Hill compromise was meant to be the culmination of months of hard-fought wrangling. But Republican Scott Brown’s wavering and Democrat Robert Byrd’s death put the proposal back in jeopardy.  I think the assumption is that Dem “no” votes Cantwell and Feingold will both switch to “yes” so that in the end losing Brown and temporarily losing the WV Dems vote won’t matter. But even though the early spin was that the bill got tougher on Wall Street at the end, bankers aren’t jumping from the windows today. That might irk Cantwell and Feingold and keep them against it. But I doubt it. Give the  bill a 80-90 percent chance of passage.