let s get to our other top story. the senate appears headed for a showdown today over whether to begin debate on financial reform legislation. democrats need support from at least one republican to move forward but it s still not clear if any republican will break rank in time for the 5:00 vote. at issue, a proposed $50 billion fund that would help cover the costs of dealing with a major financial firm s failure. although the financial industry would pay for the fund, republicans argue it leaves the door open to bailouts. still there is optimism that a bipartisan compromise will emer emerge. we re getting there. we re close. we got some more work to do. we ll be meeting later today, faft, to talk about it. we re not there yet. but i hope we could get the votes tomorrow when we have this motion to proceed the bill to start the debate. this is something, by the way, that everyone has committed to try to do, and that is, to have this bipartisan agreement before it goes to the floor. i
on this. right. exactly. reporter: so i don t i don t want to sit here and demonize their motives, i really think this gets in the way of the philosophical argument. at the same time, you hear all of tease republicans, whether it s mcconnell in leadership or bob corker or suson collins, they all want to do something pretty big but they have to find this whatever this elises ive middle ground is. the white house doesn t ever want to look like they re, quote, compromising because their bill will be, quote/unquote, tough. so they re in their own political box. it s tap dancing and it s hard to understand how they ll go back to their electorate and say we were against the financial reform system at this point. reporter: they re not. like i said, i will be shocked today if this thing gets held up. you re handing the democrats a talking point if they are successfully able to philly bfi.
political director and co-host of the daily rundown, chuck todd. good morning. reporter: good morning to you guys. let s start with financial reform. this vote at 5:00, seems like some are slightly hopeful it might move forward but there are some republicans who say no. reporter: well, i think that you look, what was fascinating about yesterday on the sunday shows and even what you read today in the quotes, from all the republicans, we re close, we re close, a deal is imminent and the democrats are sounding a little pessimistic when it comes to at least getting a deal, say, before the vote this afternoon late this afternoon at 5:00. so, we ll see. but it does feel like something s going to happen before then and that with that sitting as the deadline, there are too many republicans that seem to want to cut a deal, to want to move this forward, that i guess i would be surprised if this thing somehow got held up on a 59/49 vote. we heard dick shelby announced this morning f
republicans will, no doubt, win a lot of seats and narrow their majority in the senate. but it s pretty hard to see the path where they would win control. what about barbara boxer, is even she in control if california? she is in trouble in california. that has some democrats worried. if barbara boxer is in trouble, what does that mean fort rest of them? even if they lose that seat, republicans still have four open seats, new hampshire, ohio, missouri and in florida where they have to defend and then get ten more. so, the math is pretty hard for republicans to get to take back control of the senate. i want to try to get at least one must read in because obviously financial reform is the big issue this week in washington. this is a letter to the editor i found over the weekend. public rage against wall street. by a guy named eric mullen. excuse the cynicism but the government s filing of a civil suit rather than criminal charges against goldman sachs
agreement, republicans will block the motion to proceed to debating this bill? i think that s very likely. jim, assuming we get through this stage where we re debating whether or not to debate it, what do we end up with here? republicans have to give in, don t they, or else risk being seen as defending wall street? they have to give in. this affects only one krngs goldman sachs. there are no other companies that have more than $100 million exposure. this is just about goldman sachs because they dominate the derivative business. comes back to a firm that s been targeted and regarded as being the outliar. you can like that or not, but this does not mean a great deal for the industry. we ll list derivativetives on exchanges. we should have done that for a long time. i say hallelujah, the legislation is much needed. and, of course, most americans want to make sure we don t have another boom and a bust on wall street like we ve had with the asian well, black monday in 87, the asi