Real leadership would have pushed a "significant" bill through even in the face of opposition within the party. Real leadership would have said that reform was critical and made public any attempts by either side to thwart it. Co-sponsorship of a bill takes no effort, and is mostly a PR stunt, as bills do not need co-sponsors in order to be introduced. Getting the bill to the floor for a vote and showing up to vote for it, that's leadership.
Basically what happened to this bill was a huge public show of support from the White House, including Snow trotting up the Hill to testify, lots of rhetoric on both sides, and then it was shoved off to a committee to die. No real effort was even made by either side to pass or defeat it, so all the claims now to be in support or opposition is just so much sound and fury, signifying nothing. McCain cannot truthfully claim to be for regulation based on his co-sponsorship of this bill. This bill is moot and the perfect red herring. All of the current noise about it is nothing more than a diversion to prevent discussion of the bill that is at the heart of the banking crisis, the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, which you can bet the McCain campaign does not want discussed. BTW, I searched the congressional record for any committee action on S.190 and found none beyond the summary I posted earlier. I'll look deeper when I have some free time. On Wed, Sep 17, 2008 at 3:08 PM, Robert Munn <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > There is no question that many Republicans and Democrats in Congress > alike have showed zero preference for leadership over partisan > politics. I will note that John McCain has been a consistent voice in > the wilderness in that respect - battling his own party as often as > the Democrats on the big issues. His co-sponsorship of this bill is a > perfect example of how he is a leader on the issues that matter. > > On Wed, Sep 17, 2008 at 2:47 PM, Maureen wrote: >> So the republicans were pouting about Hagel's opinion on Iraq and they >> failed to support a bill the president considered extremely >> significant. >> >> Now that's real leadership. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Adobe® ColdFusion® 8 software 8 is the most important and dramatic release to date Get the Free Trial http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;203748912;27390454;j Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Community/message.cfm/messageid:269796 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89.70.5
