There has been more momentum toward the bin Laden death leading to an exit from our occupation of Afghanistan than I expected. I expected more hesitancy from typically cautious Democrats around this point. But here’s Barney Frank making an argument: Explaining his decision to vote for the Afghanistan war in 2001, Frank said, “We went [...]

There’s been a boomlet of stories about Elizabeth Warren’s potential tenure as Director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, in the wake of her testimony before a House committee last week. Paul Krugman advances the ball today. Krugman’s argument was that Republican criticism of Warren’s involvement in the mortgage servicer settlement was designed to keep [...]

Here’s just a quick example for why a pay freeze for public workers is about the stupidest policy you could put together right now. If you’re Barack Obama, you believe have engineered two signature victories through the Congress. You have a health care bill where the regulation that is key to the bill has been [...]

The Senate planned to hold tax cut votes today on four separate proposals: one to extend the Bush-era rates on the first $250,000 of income, the “millionaire’s bracket” plan to extend the rates up to $1 million dollars, a Republican plan to extend the Bush rates permanently, and a plan to extend them for five [...]

Via Atrios, three Democratic members of Congress have sent a letter to Michael Williams, the CEO of Fannie Mae, challenging him on his GSE using “foreclosure mill” law firms in foreclosure cases. I’ve added the letter on the flip. At issue are the law firms who are under investigation by Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum [...]

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy I haven’t had much to say about yesterday’s future of housing finance summit because I found it to be an academic exercise in the face of a near-term, immediate crisis. The story above from Chris Hayes just shows the utter ineptitude of the [...]

Following up on the story about two top House Democrats seeking a personal meeting with the President to discuss the Elizabeth Warren nomination for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the Senate side has two new endorsers, including the number two in the Democratic leadership. Heads up: Add Dick Durbin and Carl Levin to the list [...]

Reps. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) and Barney Frank (D-MA) have sent are circulating a new letter to the President, requesting a personal meeting with him about nominating Elizabeth Warren as the head of the Consumer Financial Protection Agency. This is an escalation of the earlier action spearheaded by Maloney, which resulted in 63 members of the [...]

The Office of Congressional Ethics complaint against Maxine Waters, which they completed a year ago but has only just now been unsealed, is available here. I think you have all you need to know about this complaint by learning that disgraced former CIA Director Porter Goss, no stranger to ethics violations, is the co-chair of [...]

I’m amused by the notion that Elizabeth Warren’s potential nomination for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has “achieved a level of symbolism on the left that’s out of proportion to the merits of the different candidates.” First, there’s nothing symbolic about what we know Warren would try to accomplish. But also, what do people think [...]

At this hour, the Wall Street reform conference committee is convening to deal with the remaining issues in the bill, which was thrown into disarray when resistance from Scott Brown and others to a $19 billion dollar bank tax threatened final passage. Reportedly, conferees will deal with that mainly by closing the TARP early: Democrats [...]