Only 8 Senators Voted No

Byron Dorgan was one of them. From The Plank:

Department of Nostradamus
From a November 5, 1999, NYT article on Congress's passage of "landmark legislation" easing bank laws:

''I think we will look back in 10 years' time and say we should not have done this but we did because we forgot the lessons of the past, and that that which is true in the 1930's is true in 2010,'' said Senator Byron L. Dorgan, Democrat of North Dakota. ''I wasn't around during the 1930's or the debate over Glass-Steagall. But I was here in the early 1980's when it was decided to allow the expansion of savings and loans. We have now decided in the name of modernization to forget the lessons of the past, of safety and of soundness.''

If you want to ruin your morning, read the whole thing. (H/t E.H.)

--Jason Zengerle

P.S. The best quote from the Times article linked above: ''The concerns that we will have a meltdown like 1929 are dramatically overblown,'' said Senator Bob Kerrey, Democrat of Nebraska.