Financial regulatory reform: And the winner is...

Wondering who the big winner is... in the financial regulatory reform being advocated by America's leading opponents of good government - Obama / Dodd / Frank ?

Here's an insightful quote from the HuffPost's founder, Arianna. She leads from one small part of the reform package - that was killed with Republican objections - to a much uglier reality of how Washington works:

Objections that were, no doubt, the end product of the mother of all lobbying campaigns by every sector of the financial industry. Of course, the line between Senator, staffer and lobbyist is pretty blurry these days. A joint report released by SEIU, the Campaign for America's Future, and the Public Accountability Initiative found that the finance industry has 70 former members of Congress and 940 former federal employees on its lobbying payroll. This includes 33 chiefs of staff, 54 staffers of the House Financial Services Committee and Senate Banking Committee (or of a current member of those committees), and 28 legislative directors. Five of Senate Banking Committee chair Chris Dodd's former staffers are now working as banking lobbyists, as are eight former staffers for Banking Committee powerhouses Richard Shelby and Chuck Schumer.

It's the revolving door.

Shocking, huh?

They all need to go. I'm thrilled to see so many career pols either fleeing (Dodd, Bayh, Obey) or losing (Bennett, Specter, Holloman).

Tim White