Remember how we were excited when Melissa Bean beat Republican Phil Crane in 2004?
Since then, worked very hard to make sure that Wall St. and mortgage bankers have free rein to rape the country:
After several hours delay on Wednesday, House leaders conceded to pressure by moderate Democrat Rep. Melissa Bean, of Illinois, to broaden proposed powers of the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency to preempt state consumer protection laws for national banks.
The current Comptroller of the Currency is a holdover from the Bush administration with nearly a year to go on his term, and he has steadfastly opposed any consumer protection actions by state Attorneys General (see Cuomo v. Clearing House Association), so if this law passes, he'll be eviscerating state consumer protection laws left and right in the next few months, all thanks to Illinois' favorite Blue Dog and "New Democrat".
Of course, next August, we'll get someone new, but even if they aren't like Tim Geithner, bureaucracies never voluntarily relinquish prerogatives, so s/he will do the same thing too.
(more after break)
What makes this even worse is that only challenger in the Democratic primary was just struck from the ballot for an insufficient number of valid signatures on his nominating petitions, meaning that sane folks have a choice between a shill for the banking and finance industries, and some batshit insane Republican who would have Abraham Lincoln spinning in his grave.
This is why I don't give to the DCCC and DSCC, because some of this money goes to people like Melissa bean.
Choose your candidates, and then contribute directly, or through Act Blue.
[on edit]
The worst part is that about the only thing that can rescue the Republican party right now is the perception that Democrats are in the pockets of the much despised financial industry.