Hopes Dashed

After one or both of Maine's Senators voted against every democratic amendment that would have restrained the Bankruptcy bill (which the Lewiston Sun Journal today described as "legislation that will sell you out to the credit card industry and write special rules for the wealthy"), Snowe and Collins took a step back from the brink and joined only two other Republicans in doing the right thing. This morning they voted for the Schumer Amendment to the bill, which would have prevented convicted anti-abortion terrorists from declaring bankruptcy to avoid paying their court judgements.

Last time the "sell you out to the credit card industry" bill was put forward, this amendment was included by the Senate and caused the entire piece of legislation to be rejected by the House. The vote today was probably the last chance to stop this bill from being passed. Unfortunately, even with the support of Snowe and Collins, the amendment lost 46-53.

Two hours later our Senators, along with every Republican and a few Dems, took a running leap into the abyss and voted for a cloture measure that ended debate on the bill and will bring it to a final vote in two days.

Here's a fun fact: Credit Card giant MBNA was the largest individual contributor to Republicans last year and was also the largest contributor for both Snowe and Collins during their last elections.

[Update] More fun facts from TPM:

The senator who has raised the most in her career from the [credit card] industry is Olympia Snowe (R-ME). Snowe has brought in over $316,000 from the credit industry, most of it from the political action committee of MBNA, the nation's top credit card issuer. To make matters worse, Snowe's husband, former Maine Governor John McKernan, has worked as a paid consultant for MBNA. [...]

Olympia Snowe is a moderate Republican who has, during her career, won victories for middle class women. Today she plans to sell [sold] them out for a measly $316,000.

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