Bloglander

Finally, something comprehensible in the debate over financial reform — sexism!

Forget derivatives, commodity futures and the Securities and Exchange Commission, U.S. Sen. Maria Cantwell (that's right, our senator) finally broached the topic of why only good old boys are running the debate. (Emphasis on the "old" and "boy".)

According to Politico, Cantwell called out Sen. Chris Dodd, chair of the Senate Banking Committee, and demanded he incorporate elements of Sen. Blanche Lincoln's reforms into his financial reform package. Lincoln, who chairs the Senate Agriculture Committee, had already been ignored by Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and many felt her ideas were being dismissed out of hand. In a closed door Democratic policy meeting, Cantwell said Lincoln's ideas on derivative reform better be included in a reform bill. Or else.

"It was tough, pointed," Politico quotes an observer as saying. "It was about jurisdiction, but also gender." 

"She's one tough lady," Lincoln said about Cantwell. "I think she was feeling a lot of the same sentiments that a lot of us were."

Read more here.