Reporting Thursday from Capitol Hill, MSNBC congressional correspondent Luke Russert touted a likely win for Senate Democrats on the Financial Reform Bill, saying it would be a "huge victory."
"Obviously, [President Obama] ran on the slogan 'Change you can believe in,' with health care reform and financial regulatory reform," Russert commented, thus tying the passage of the financial reform bill with success of Obama's message of "change."
Using the 60-38 result of the Senate vote in favor of cloture, Luke Russert said the final vote would come late Thursday afternoon, probably resulting in a Democrat victory for financial reform, thus accomplishing a task President Obama began last year.
Russert, however, had a bit of trouble identifying two of the major players in the financial crisis. Republicans, he reported, said the bill wasn't "going far enough in terms of reforming Freddie Mae and Fannie Mac, two facets of the government they say were very much responsible for that meltdown in 2008."
The transcript of Russert's segment, which aired on July 15 at 12:04 p.m. EDT, is as follows:
CONTESSA BREWER, MSNBC anchor: Luke, here we've seen more than a year of political wrangling, and it looks like this bill will cross the finish line.
LUKE RUSSERT, MSNBC congressional correspondent: It absolutely will indeed, according to sources from the Democratic side, Contessa. The first procedural vote just happened in the past hour, 60-38 Republicans, three of which – Scott Brown, Olympia Snowe, and Susan Collins from Maine – joined with 57 Democrats to bring forth cloture. That's the first procedural matter here. Then we will have a final vote this Thursday afternoon and most likely deliver President Obama a huge victory that he set out to do last year. Obviously he ran on the slogan "Change you can believe in," with healthcare reform and this financial regulatory reform. The administration and the Democratic Party feels they've accomplished two amazing things. It's going to be interesting to see how much the Democrats will pump this out in terms of their messaging for the next month heading into the August recess. They obviously are going to try to frame it as they're standing with Main Street, while Republicans stand with Wall Street. Republicans have been very harsh on this bill, saying that it's way too much government regulation, and will restrict lending at a time when people desperately need lending from small community banks. They also say it's not going far enough in terms of reforming Freddie Mae and Fannie Mac, two facets of the government they say were very much responsible for that meltdown in 2008, September of that year, Contessa.
