It seems that financial reform...

...has hit a bump in the road:

Two months of Senate negotiations over legislation to rewrite financial regulations — a top priority of the Obama administration — fell apart on Friday amid wrangling over a proposal to create a consumer financial protection agency that would oversee credit cards, mortgages and other products.

The chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, Christopher J. Dodd of Connecticut, said that Democrats would forge ahead with their own proposal, in the absence of Republican support. That could result in a bitter partisan fight resembling the struggle over health care — an outcome that Mr. Dodd has said for months he would try to avoid.

After watching the health care debacle for the last year, is there any reason to be optimistic that the Senate can pass a financial reform bill?