More New Englanders Speak

Susan Collins, endangered Republican of Maine (yes, Tom Allen trails badly in the polls, but the national anti-GOP mood may yet reach that race), just spoke on the bailout bill. She's voting yes, but like most others wanted to be on the record lambasting everybody she could possibly blame for the situation: "greedy Wall Street traders," "unscrupulous mortgage bankers," "naive or deceptive borrowers," etc. etc. etc. Collins mentioned that she was at one time chair of the Maine commission that regulates the banking and securities industry -- doesn't that suggest she should have seen this crisis coming? Perhaps my colleagues at the Portland Phoenix know better than I whether Allen is making any headway against Collins on this issue.

She was followed by Jack Reed, Democrat of Rhode Island, who is also technically up for re-election. He's voting for the bill. He did have one interesting thing to say: urging against easing mark-to-market regulations, which is picking up steam as a way to help repair the books of financial institutions. (The SEC partially eased the regulations today, Congress is considering going further.) I don't know if it might be necessary, but Reed is right that we should be extremely wary of going back to mark-to-market accounting -- which Enron executives used to great effect.

Mitch McConnell, suddenly vulnerable Republican of Kentucky, is now explaining his Yes vote......zzzzzz....