Scott Brown announced his support for repealing Don’t Ask Don’t Tell today, consistent with the position of the broader military. “I pledged to keep an open mind about the present policy on Don’t Ask Don’t Tell. Having reviewed the Pentagon report, having spoken to active and retired military service members, and having discussed the matter [...]

The military’s survey on attitudes toward gay and lesbian service members is slated for release today, and early reports are that they don’t really care about changes to the policy that would allow their colleagues to serve openly. The Pentagon study that argues that gay troops could serve openly without hurting the military’s ability to [...]

AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka took issue with the suggestion that the labor movement failed in punishing Democrats who voted against the health care law through primary challenges in 2010. Speaking about the One Nation Coming Together rally scheduled for Washington DC and 300 satellite sites around the country on October 2, Trumka disputed the notion [...]

WiFi has seemed to come around here in Las Vegas, allowing me to deliver LIVE EXCLUSIVES about the Netroots Nation convention. Actually, I don’t have a whole lot to say. Here are some tidbits: • Ran into Lt. Dan Choi yesterday, when he learned he was officially discharged. He still hasn’t seen the documents yet, [...]

It’s summer in an election year, and that’s the time for the deficit peacocks to come out of hibernation and strut their feathers, letting everyone know that they care – very much! – about deficits. This is a bipartisan phenomenon. On one side of the aisle, Republicans want to freeze discretionary spending, borrowing an idea [...]

The FinReg conference committee is finally getting around to the derivatives title this afternoon, and they’re working without a net. There is no deal currently in place that would mollify corporate-friendly Democrats trying to protect their wealthy contributors on Wall Street and reformers who want to reduce risk in the system and bring the derivative [...]

This is the first pure threat I’ve heard from a House member on the Wall Street reform bill. It comes from Blue Dog and member of the New York delegation Mike McMahon. His rationale is ridiculous: Rep. Michael McMahon (D., N.Y.) said in an interview today that he will vote against the financial overhaul bill [...]

(Please see the update. The derivatives offer is a lot worse than I thought.) An odyssey that started back in December in the House could finally culminate today, with the finishing touches put on the Wall Street reform bill as the conference committee winds up its work. With so many consequential issues still yet to [...]

Earlier, I noted the House offer on derivatives, which will be a focus of tomorrow’s final FinReg conference committee meeting. It’s not bad, it actually strengthens in places (like closing the enforcement loophole, something sought by Maria Cantwell), and the weakening pieces aren’t all that crucial. The exchange and clearinghouse requirements remain, as does Section [...]

You of course remember that Blanche Lincoln sailed to victory in a tough Democratic primary in Arkansas by telling the state that she produced the toughest reforms on the banks imaginable. She took credit for creating the entire reform bill, and said that she fought for Arkansans over Wall Street. I guess that’s sort of [...]

The Wall Street reform conference committee doesn’t meet today, as they wrapped up most of their work on the first week of the conference last night. Fawn Johnson at Dow Jones offers a wrap-up on the key issues, including the Collins amendment on capital requirements: Lawmakers also are haggling over whether and how to grandfather [...]