The timing could not be better. Or worse, depending on your POV.

So, GOP Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell flies into New York to coordinate messaging with Wall Street in opposition to the proposed financial regulatory reform intended bring an end to the "Too Big To Fail" era, comes back with misleading and dishonest arguments that pretend to be against helping TBTF banks while actually supporting them. And yes, it is that obvious.

Then, just as the incredulity and blow-back starts to mount, the SEC charges Goldman Sachs, the great vampire squid itself, with CDO- and RMBS-related fraud. Ouch! So now he's stuck in a corner with the banks, the biggest of which is being hauled into court on fraud charges. The Dems will suddenly find it much easier to paint the GOP as being in bed with the banks, and this puts heavy, populist pressure on the GOP senators to break ranks and therefore the fillibuster, allowing the leglislation to go through. I'm a pessimist on this, however: I think Mitch can still rely on the cast-iron party discipline the GOP has built up to stop the bill going forwards.