At 5PM Eastern today, the Senate has a scheduled procedural vote on whether or not to table the financial reform bill, written largely by Chris Dodd (D-Conn.), to begin debate and the amendment process. 

As of this morning, Senator Richard Shelby (R-Alabama) said that, while both sides are mere inches away from an agreement on financial reform, a break in the Republican filibuster was unlikely to happen today.  That being said, a lot of things can happen in the political world in 6 hours, especially when it comes to this issue when recent polling has shown roughly two thirds of those polled favour reform.

Senate majority leader Harry Reid seems to be itching for a fight on banking reform, which means that even if the vote fails tonight with 41 or more votes, you will see Democrats hit the GOP hard in the media for being in league with the almost universally despised banking industry.  Although, expect the Republicans to hit back hard if any Democrats decide to vote along with the GOP against tabling the bill for debate.

In the end I'm sure there will be an agreement and if it doesn't happen today, it will happen soon because it's really all about political posturing at this point.  We'll let you know what happens later today with this vote so we can take a look at the basic bill, but the real meat and potatoes will come when we examine the eventual amendments offered when the bill can finally be debated.

UPDATE: Democratic Senator Ben Nelson of Nebraska and majority leader Senator Harry Reid both voted with 41 Republicans to stop the financial reform bill being tabled to begin debate.  There had been some speculation as to where the Senator's vote would be cast, especially after he played hardball with health-care reform legislation, but I wasn't expecting Senator Reid to vote against the motion to proceed.  Although, saying that, Mr. Reid had been concerned about the weakening of the bill due to negotiations between Senator Dodd and Senator Shelby, and he also voted last after the bill was already defeated.  The final vote on the failed motion was 57 to 41 with two abstentions.  

As for the Republicans, they had announced prior to the vote that they would stay the course and vote no on this procedural test vote, and continue to filibuster.  There were rumours that the GOP may be filibustering long enough to submit their own competing legislation in the coming days, but I'm not sure on that.

In any event, it seems like the old tried and tested obstruction tactic is the way to winning elections, especially when you won't even support starting debate.