U.S. PIRG Consumer Blog: Post's Broder on Senator Kennedy: No Other Like Him

The Washington Post columnist David Broder has a fine and well-deserved tribute to Senator Ted Kennedy today: No Other Like Him.

Along with Travis Plunkett of the Consumer Federation of America, who led the consumer-civil rights-labor coalition against the bill, and many other advocates, I had the privilege of working with Senator Kennedy during part of the long (8-year) rear-guard battle against the draconian bankruptcy bill, which ultimately was enacted in 2005. For the first several years of that effort, the late Senator Paul Wellstone (D-MN) led the fight, but after he and his wife died in a tragic plane crash, Senator Kennedy took over the fight.

As Travis pointed out in a note to some of us today: "Senator Kennedy got his entire senior staff involved in the effort to stop the bill, called almost-daily strategy meetings with advocates and other Senators who opposed the bill, contacted the media repeatedly and spent many hours on the Floor offering amendments, coordinating opposition efforts and speaking against the bill."

This is all true (although Travis could have added that Senator Kennedy also frequently brought his two dogs to these meetings to ensure that we had all angles covered).

What's also true is that Senator Kennedy surely knew we had no chance to win against the phalanx of credit card company lobbyists who were buttressed by record campaign contributions and a friend on the White House. The bill eventually passed overwhelmingly, in the Senate 74-25 and the House 302-126.

But, in fact, Senator Kennedy knew that opposing that bill was the right thing to do, and as in so many of his other battles for justice, it simply had to be done.

But in losing that 2005 battle, he may have helped win the war. Today, the bankruptcy bill is belittled as the ultimate giveaway to an ungrateful special interest. It has resulted in headaches for its Capitol Hill proponents. The credit card companies took that victory, and instead of acting gratefully and humbly, turned around and squeezed their customers even harder. Now, the rest of the Congress and even the Fed and FDIC all recognize the rapacious nature of the credit card industry's practices and are turning against the credit card companies for their excesses. We have a tough road ahead, as we always do, but we may win real reforms against their worst practices.

So, Senator Kennedy fought that battle and while it looked at one point as if he'd lost, he's now winning. We wish him and his family luck in his latest battle. (Thanks to Travis Plunkett for the idea for this blog entry.)