A Fighting Chance

We had very little information about what had led to the latest assault on the agency, but we did know one thing: The Senate did not want a tough vote on this issue. Dan explained what that meant: The consumer agency was popular, and, to a lot of senators, a vote on the new agency meant having to choose between angering the public and angering the banks—and they didn’t want to anger either. They preferred a quiet and slightly mysterious death.

So I figured: Too bad. Too damn bad. If a bunch of senators were going to pick the banks over families, then the American public had a right to know. And if we didn’t win, we could at least make one hell of a stink.

Word of the agency’s fate got around fast, and the consumer groups were as fired up as I was. No one talked about quitting. The nonprofits doubled down on their efforts. E-mail campaigns and rallies erupted across the country. Progressive bloggers joined the fight. Some of the state attorneys general weighed in, including the attorney general from Ohio, a guy named Rich Cordray.

Within a matter of days, the bad news got worse. On January 19, Massachusetts held a special election to fill the vacancy left by Ted Kennedy’s death.

The Tea Party was in full throat, decrying all the ways they believed Washington had failed. A smiling, energetic National Guardsman named Scott Brown had waged a creative campaign, and once he proved that he might be able to seize the seat that had been held by the Liberal Lion and put it in Republican hands, Tea Party money poured in faster than he could spend it. Brown rode a wave of national anger, and on Election Day, that wave carried him to the Senate.

Brown’s victory ended the Democrats’ sixty-vote majority in the Senate, giving a newly energized Republican Party the leverage to block—or at least to rewrite—legislation they did not like. To those of us fighting for the consumer agency, it looked like another nail in the coffin.

Heather asked me to talk to as many people as I could. Conference calls, meetings, interviews with all kinds of media—I tried everything. I wrote an op-ed for the Wall Street Journal. I met with consumer groups and congressional aides. I showed up on The Rachel Maddow Show and Morning Joe. I went back on Jon Stewart’s show, and this time I didn’t throw up. I talked about the agency, and Jon said he’d like to make out with me. (All in good fun, of course—he knew Bruce was backstage.) Okay, it was getting a little crazy.

But to me the issue was simple: Banks versus families.

And the request was reasonable: A public vote.

Three weeks stretched into four and then to five, six, and seven. The pressure from the consumer groups seemed to be working. New rumors started flying. The agency’s heartbeat was faint, but reports of its death now seemed premature.

The lobbyists bore down. Plan A: Kill the agency. Plan B: Maim it so that it won’t interfere with the big banks’ business plans. They attacked the whole idea of the agency, but they also went after the agency’s structure, trying to ensure that it would be independent in name only. The lobbyists’ message was clear: If we have to, we’ll let the politicians have their show agency, but we’ll cripple it so that it’ll never be able to get anything done.

By now, this was a pitched battle. AFR launched a television ad in Montana targeting a recalcitrant senator. There was a protest at the Wells Fargo annual shareholder meeting, and rallies were held in Kansas City and Denver and Chicago. Petitions appeared online, and newspapers across the country published editorials and op-eds about the agency.

In early March, Hollywood weighed in. Composer Hans Zimmer and writer-director James Brooks wanted to give the agency more public attention. The result was the first ever reunion of all the stars who had played presidents on Saturday Night Live. Ron Howard directed, and Will Farrell, Dana Carvey, Chevy Chase, Dan Aykroyd, Darrell Hammond, and Fred Armisen were all in great form as they played presidents from Ford through Obama. The ersatz former presidents urged Obama to “grow a pair” and fight for the consumer agency. Jim Carrey delivered the knockout punch, starring as the ghost of Ronald Reagan and strutting around the set with an oversize pair of steel balls clanking in his pants. Produced for the website Funny or Die, the video got millions of hits and some great news coverage.

Meanwhile, Senator Dodd went on Hardball with Chris Matthews and argued in favor of a strong consumer agency. The same day, we heard puzzling reports that Dodd was trying to water down the agency. But the Senate Banking Committee doors were firmly locked, and I was on the outside. I didn’t know what the Senate would do.

I continued talking to the media whenever possible, and that spring, the Huffington Post asked me about some of the proposals to gut the agency. Was I willing to accept a shell of an agency?