The bottom line is, either you believe in your theory of change or you don’t. If you believe that progressive policies such as a bigger stimulus package, or more banking regulation will have a greater impact on restoring the economy and creating jobs, then the people who won’t let you do that are hobbling your ability to succeed. Because the public doesn’t really care whether the change is happening because of liberal or conservative policies, they just care that it’s happening. And they make their choices at the ballot box based on what is happening in their lives.

Last night, there was a breakthrough of sorts, which involved the House leadership basically giving the New Dems what they wanted.

People in an earlier thread were asking for a list of the 63 Democrats who joined with the 165 Republicans to pass an amendment putting a huge loophole in Alan Grayson’s bill, which would have forced TARP recipients to stop paying “retention bonuses” as long as they were being supported by taxpayer dollars.

Melissa Bean’s amendment says that as long as banks start paying back their loan money, which they can do

Melissa Bean proved she’s a worthy successor to Ellen Tauscher as head of the Wall Street-friendly New Democrat Coalition when she led an effort to insert a huge loophole in a bill that would have forced TARP recipients to make all bonuses performance based.