Free Republic

The surest indication of whether a bill will be pushed through Congress right now is not a speech from President Obama or a declaration by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.). Instead, it's often a letter from the office of a Massachusetts senator who has served in Washington for less than seven months. When Sen. Scott Brown (R) announced in a written statement Monday he would back a briefly stalled bill to reform the financial regulatory system, two other Republicans quickly joined him. The three helped prevent a Republican filibuster of the legislation on Thursday morning, clearing the way for a...

Republicans were forced to "back down" from blocking Wall Street reform, according to a fundraising letter sent by the president. In the e-mail to his supporters, President Barack Obama wrote that pressure on lawmakers forced Republicans to "back down" from blocking the legislation, which the Senate passed Thursday. "This movement proved again that the strongest special interests, who for so long have called the shots in Washington, can be beat," he wrote. "When opponents in Congress tried to block the legislation altogether, you stood up -- and they backed down. When the lobbyists pushed for loopholes and exemptions just before...