It seems fitting that the summer of 2010 is ending with yet another heatwave. This summer's intense heat, felt around the country, seems to have flared tempers, soured civil discourse and brought on political paralysis. How else does one explain the meanness of the season? There may be other, more rational explanations, having to do with gross political opportunism from the minority party and a lack of courage and imagination from the ruling party. But it is much more satisfying to blame the weather.

The drumbeat started sometime last week. The Press declared it would be the next big legislative battle. A number of  conservative pundits were deployed to sound the alarm: unless Congress acts this Fall, Bush's tax cuts will expire by the end of the year --- amounting to "the biggest tax increase in decades." They called it the ticking tax bomb.

Here's another example of the twisted logic of market fundamentalism: At today's congressional hearings on the BP oil spill, Representative Joe Barton (R, Texas) issued an apology to BP CEO Tony Hayward. Barton is ashamed that the White House has asked BP to set aside $20 billion to help oil spill victims, calling the request a 'shake-down.' You have to see the video to fully appreciate Barton's sense of shame. 

These past two years, we’ve been hit by one catastrophe after another: the spectacular explosion of the housing bubble, the Wall Street meltdown, high unemployment rates, and now, the worst environmental catastrophe that we’ve ever seen on our shores. 

In the months leading up to the Senate vote on financial reforms, grassroots mobilizations on the part of community, labor and faith-based groups injected much-needed energy into the debate. Now, while we wait for lawmakers in the House and Senate to reconcile their versions of reform, let's assess, and also celebrate, the role these mobilizations played in getting reforms this far along, against powerful lobbying on the part of Wall Street and tepid leadership in Congress.