Obama meets with lawmakers on Wall Street measure

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May 21, 2010


President Obama has invited the two key Democrats in charge of the big Wall Street regulation legislation for a meeting this morning at the White House.

The press office just added the meeting, with Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn., and Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., to the president's schedule. The two lawmakers head the Senate and House banking committees and will be key players in the conference that will hammer out differences between the different versions of the legislation approved by the two chambers.

The Senate approved the 1,500-page bill last night on a 59-39 vote, with four Republicans joining Democrats in support of the legislation.

That gives the White House a chance to talk about another big legislative victory (could that be why an unusual Friday briefing by spokesman Robert Gibbs was just added to the schedule) and underscore a populist theme you're likely to be hearing again and again from Democrats in the upcoming campaign season.

As Rep. Chris Van Hollen, the chairman of the Democrats' congressional campaign committee, put it to reporters on Thursday: "Democrats are the party of reform, and Republicans are the party of business as usual."