Firedog Lake – Today really kicks off debate on the financial reform bill, and we’ve already had some major news. First, Majority Leader Harry Reid staked out his clear position on amendments to the bill, saying that he would like to see simple majority thresholds for all amendments. Here’s a rush transcript of that, from the floor:

By the time this gets off the floor, it will — we will have shown that it will have a significant majority of senators voting for this. I hope that is the case. I would hope also that we don’t get locked into something that appears to be the order of the congress around here that everything has to have 60 votes. On our side we’re willing — I can’t speak for everyone, but I think I’m going to certainly — I’m more within my power to tell my senators, let’s just have a 50-vote margin. Why do we need to have 60 votes on everything we do around here?

This contrasts with the health care debate, where by bipartisan agreement 60 votes were automatically required for all amendments.

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