Bono Approved
Amid the punditry over whether the financial reform bill will be effective, the measure received a ringing endorsement last week from the only expert that may matter (to some people, at least): Bono.
The lead singer of U2, and founder of the antipoverty group ONE, lauded the bill for including an amendment by Sen. Ben Cardin, D-Md., and Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Ind., that would require companies listed on the New York Stock Exchange to disclose what they pay foreign governments for extracting oil, gas and other resources.
The amendment "is a great lever to support more transparency and healthier governance in poor countries," Bono said in a press release issued Thursday by ONE.
Close Calls
In a year full of complications for lawmakers trying to pass the overhaul, it was fitting the hiccups continued on to the final vote.
Hearts may have skipped a beat twice Thursday when senators were just a few strides from the finish line. On the procedural vote in which Senate Democrats needed 60 votes to prevent a filibuster, Sen. Roland Burris, D-Ill., presiding over the vote, started to lower the gavel to end it. Clearly, he thought Democrats had the votes they needed. But they didn't. Burris realized just in time and allowed Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., to rush into the chamber to cast his vote. A good-natured Sen. Chris Dodd, the bill's author, mocked sternness when he told Levin: "Get over there and go vote. You are my 60th vote."
In the second moment of near panic, Dodd's colleagues may have been having some fun at his expense. The final vote on passing the bill was scheduled after lawmakers were to consider a question about the budget. But following the budget item, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid announced that after talking to Republican leadership all day he decided there would be no more votes. The room filled with shock and Dodd looked liked he was about to fall out of his chair. Reid chuckled and corrected himself, saying, "We'll have final passage."
Newfound Friends
Federal Reserve Board officials haven't exactly found heaps of praise from lawmakers on Capitol Hill recently, but the visit last week of three Fed board nominees was an all-out lovefest.
During their Senate Banking Committee hearing Thursday, Dodd, the panel's chairman, pointed out how the bios for the three nominees — Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco President Janet Yellen, Maryland banking commissioner Sarah Bloom Raskin and Peter Diamond, a Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor — helped their cause.
For one thing, Diamond and Yellen both attended Yale University in Dodd's home state. "I noticed that the two of you of course had the benefit of a Connecticut education … so you are in pretty good stead with me at the beginning of this process," Dodd said.
And whereas Republicans have been the most critical of the central bank in the debate over regulatory reform, the reverence toward the nominees seemed to come from both sides of the aisle. At one point, Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., turned to Diamond, an expert on Social Security and taxation, and said, "You've written more books than I've probably read in my lifetime."
Mismatch
It's well known in Washington that if you're going to talk policy with House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank, you had better bring your A-game.
So no one knew quite what to expect from his television appearance last week with the comedian and reality television host Kathy Griffin.
The episode of Griffin's Bravo TV show "Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D-List" was set up as the host visiting Washington to discuss with capital insiders, among other things, her support for repealing the military's "don't ask don't tell" policy.
But her spot with Frank was anything but a serious policy discussion. Many of her jokes were crude and were met with awkward silence.
For his part, Frank took the experience in stride. When Frank informed Griffin that lawmakers would probably not be able to repeal the controversial law in time for her to make a lunch appointment with Liza Minnelli, the TV host said that would be a difficult pill to swallow.
"My guess is, Kathy, it probably is not the only pill you've swallowed this week," Frank said.
