He's Just Not That Into You

It looks like Democrat Chris Dodd has dumped Republican Bob Corker in his efforts to create financial reform, and has announced that he will be releasing a Corker-less proposal on Monday:

Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd said he will release his version of legislation to overhaul financial rules, signaling that talks on a compromise with Republican Bob Corker have collapsed.

Dodd, a Connecticut Democrat who had been negotiating with Corker since last month, will release his proposal March 15 and hold a committee meeting to consider changes in two weeks, according to a statement released today.

“I have been fortunate to have a strong partner in Senator Corker and my new proposal will reflect his input and the good work done by many of our colleagues,” Dodd said. “Our talks will continue and it is still our hope to come to agreement on a strong bill all of the Senate can be proud to support.”

Note that he did not mention Richard Shelby, the ranking Republican on the committee, which I think was a deliberate snub; Shelby refused to do anything even approaching good faith.

I am not certain of the dynamics.

It could be that he realized that Corker was actually just trying to delay, that there were unbridgeable differences, or that the recent stories on how Bob Corker was doing the bidding of his campaign donor payday lenders skeeved him out.

My guess is that, at it's core, Dodd did not want to spend any more time making the bill worse for just one Republican vote.