The House of Representatives, in some cases on a bipartisan basis, is generally getting at the issue of JPMorgan Chase’s multi-billion dollar losses in today’s Financial Services Committee hearing with CEO Jamie Dimon. But the two stars of the show thus far were Democratic Reps. Gary Ackerman and Brad Sherman. Ackerman asked point-blank if there’s any difference between gambling and investing.

Here we go. The bipartisan PR campaign to extend our military presence in Iraq has begun at the legislative level. Military officials already were making loaded statements about how Iraq would have to inform them soon if they wanted the troops to stay. This never materialized, so I guess you could see this as Plan B.

After the first week of the conference committee for Wall Street reform, I would call the verdict middling. Reformers have won some victories – all hedge funds and private equity firms will have to register with the SEC, credit rating agencies will be on the hook for standard liability for negligence, the Fed audit is more robust and ongoing.