Photos: WDCPIX

U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar recalls a cryptic message from Sen. Ted Kennedy that mystified the staffer who took it: “The lantern is lit.”

Klobuchar tells the Minnesota Independent she recognized the message as Kennedy’s way of beckoning her to his tiny, memorabilia-bedecked U.S. Capitol office, where the liberal lion held a small salon of senators rapt with “wild stories” from Boston and the campaign trail.

Kennedy’s jokingly obtuse message was an example of the “delightfulness and wit” he had in surplus and which Klobuchar finds sorely lacking among politicians generally.

Klobuchar, who joined the Senate in early 2007, says Kennedy “was really welcoming to new senators” — kindly sparing them a pedantic “this is how it works” lecture about the institution.

And at some point he began inviting a small group of senators — Klobuchar, Maria Cantwell of Washington, Charles Schumer of New York and one or two others — to an office he kept in the Capitol, tucked behind a press room.

“I don’t even know why we were a group,” Klobuchar says. “We were not debating the issues of the day.”

But Klobuchar recalls with fondness Kennedy’s Irish yarns and stories of the Senate. To her they formed a kind of “gift of history,” bestowed over a series of “five, six, maybe 10″ meetings.

A rising talent on the Washington, D.C. emcee circuit herself, Klobuchar says she admired Kennedy’s ability to belt out a song for the 100 people at a birthday party she attended.

Most recently, Klobuchar said she spoke with the ailing Kennedy when he returned to the Senate for a vote last spring, visiting with him where he always sat: at the back of the chamber, where he could keep an eye on the room. They talked about how he was doing, then moved to current events.

“He loved to hear about Franken-Coleman,” she says. “Just like everybody else.”

Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.) (WDCpix)

As Washington policymakers screamed bloody murder last month over bonus payments for a few hundred AIG employees, another much larger scandal flew virtually unnoticed on Capitol Hill: The divide between the wealth of blacks and whites — already gaping — grew again. Now, as Congress prepares to consider a series of consumer-friendly finance reforms, some minority advocates, researchers and lawmakers are pointing to that startling trend as another reason the reforms are urgently needed.

“We need to work together to begin to attack the institutional and structural reasons why communities of color continue to lag so far behind white families,” said Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.), who chairs the Congressional Black Caucus.

The concerns were justified last month. According to the Federal Reserve, the net worth of the typical African American family in 2007 was just 10 percent of the net worth of the typical white family — down from 12 percent in 2004. Put another way: For every $1 held by whites five years ago, blacks had 12 cents. Three years later, they had a dime.

“This is not just a gap. It’s a deepening canyon,” Meizhu Lui, director of the Closing the Racial Wealth Gap Initiative at the Oakland-based Insight Center for Community Economic Development, wrote in a Washington Post op-ed last month. “The overhyped political term ‘post-racial society’ becomes patently absurd when looking at these economic numbers.”

The staggering statistic has taken some powerful lawmakers by surprise. Participants in a wealth gap summit on Capitol Hill last month said that House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.), who attended the event, was shocked to learn the extent of the disparity.

But incredulity is one thing; closing the gap is another. And congressional lawmakers with that goal in mind face a series of barriers to getting the job done. Not only is there little recognition that such a divide exists, but the causes, according to reform advocates, are so rooted in history and engrained in policy that they’re tough to iron out. Furthermore, the solutions reside largely in tax code reforms — among the thorniest issues to tackle on Capitol Hill. Advocates for closing the wealth gap say that congressional lawmakers are well behind the curve.

“In terms of them really grappling with it,” Lui said Friday, “I don’t think they’ve done that yet. There’s plenty of room for them to address this further.”

It won’t be easy. Advocates are pushing to reverse the Bush-era tax cuts, like those slashing the capital gains and estate taxes, which provide handsome benefits to those with accumulated wealth, but do almost nothing to help Americans of color, whose assets are a fraction of those held by white’s.

“People aren’t thinking in terms of wealth, it’s always about income,” Lui said of the public policy focus. “But income alone won’t do it.”

Thomas Shapiro, professor of law and social policy at Brandeis University, said additional tax reforms could include a shift in the mortgage interest deduction to benefit lower-valued homes and the creation of another deduction for renters — controversial ideas that “no one’s really talking about,” he said.

“When the issue is something like the racial wealth gap,” he said, “it’s very difficult to think of policy levers [as solutions].”

That the wealth disparity is so wide is largely attributable to prejudiced policies both public and private. Advocates and academics point out that some of the largest federal benefit programs of the last century propped up whites but largely excluded minorities. The G.I. Bill, for example, provided $120 billion in low-interest mortgage loans to servicemen after World War II, yet less than 2 percent went to minorities before 1962, Liu found. And the Depression-era Home Owners’ Loan Corporation, created to modify mortgages to prevent foreclosures, benefited no minorities whatsoever, she said.

More recently, Harvard University discovered that, among blacks and whites of similar incomes, lenders targeted blacks more often for sub-prime loans, even when those minority borrowers were eligible for less risky arrangements.

To combat that trend, advocates and some Democrats are pushing for the creation of a Financial Products Safety Commission, a concept championed by Elizabeth Warren, who chairs the congressional panel created to oversee the Wall Street bailout. A Senate bill, sponsored by Sen. Richard Durbin (D-Ill.) would do just that. The commission would regulate financial products, like mortgage loans and credit cards, much the same way the Consumer Products Safety Commission protects buyers from faulty coffee makers and lawn chairs. Sens. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) have also sponsored the bill.

The release of the Fed’s latest Survey of Consumer Finances, a triennial assessment of American financial trends, reveals that such policies have taken their toll. The report found that, as a group, people of color held roughly 16 cents for every $1 held by whites in 2007. For Hispanics, the figure was 12 cents. For blacks, a dime. And those figures were crunched before the collapse of the economy. Advocates fear that the gap probably widened since then because, while fewer minorities than whites own their homes, minority homeowners tend to have a higher percentage of their wealth wrapped up in their homes.

Similarly, blacks and Hispanics have fewer credit cards, but tend to drive up higher debts per card. As a result, said Jose Garcia, associate director for research and policy at Demos, a liberal policy group, “more of [minorities'] income goes to pay debt, and less goes to buy assets.”

Minority advocates are also wary of payday lenders, who tend to charge exorbitant rates and target minority communities where traditional banks are often scarce. “Billions of dollars are being taken out of low- and moderate-income communities as a result of these alternative financing schemes,” Shapiro said.

Not that Congress isn’t doing anything at all. Legislation to help homeowners by empowering bankruptcy judges to alter mortgage terms passed the House last month, though it’s since stalled in the Senate. Democratic leaders are also preparing to take up bills tackling predatory lending and  credit card abuses. Another proposal to rein in payday lenders is also on the Democrats’ radar screen.

Speaking at the wealth gap summit last month, Lee said that reforming these industries to protect minority communities is long overdue. “Too many communities do not have access to traditional banks and rely too heavily on payday lenders and check cashing stores that charge uncontrolled fees and out of sight interest rates,” Lee said. “We must work together to use this financial storm to demand the institutional reforms that will begin to lift all American families out of this crisis.”

Reform advocates say they’re heartened by such statements coming from Capitol Hill, but many remain wary that few lawmakers are sticking their necks out to close the wealth gap.

“They were very friendly and very encouraging,” Shapiro said of the congressional participants at the summit, “but nobody was stepping up and saying, ‘I want to be the champion of this.’”

Mike Lillis is Congress reporter for the Washington Independent.

Harry Reid (WDCpix)

“Senate’s ruling on Burris affects seating Franken,” said a Star Tribune headline today. Not so, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid told The Politico.

“People have gotten the certificate thing messed up,” Reid said, referring to documents said to be essential to taking office under state laws. “State of Illinois is an appointment. State of Minnesota is an election. Two different things.”

Even as he counseled patience to those seeking a resolution to the contested Minnesota Senate election, Reid said he was prepared to refer Franken’s situation to the Senate’s Rules and Administration Committee, whose new chairman, Sen. Charles Schumer, was mum on the issue today. (Schumer expressed eagerness to seat Franken as recently as Monday.)

Franken’s 225-vote lead over former U.S. Sen. Norm Coleman was certified Monday by Minnesota’s State Canvassing Board. But a second certification (of election) requiring the governor’s signature is on hold, pending the outcome of a lawsuit (called an election contest) that Coleman filed Tuesday. The Senate appointment of Roland Burris by Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich has been held up by controversy over a signature and seal missing from his certificate.

Magnuson, Schumer, Cornyn

Here are three quotes from the last 24 hours on the Minnesota recount between Al Franken and former U.S. Sen. Norm Coleman:

“Everything’s been looked at and looked at carefully,” is how Minnesota Supreme Court Justice and State Canvassing Board Member Eric Magnuson sees it, according to a news report this morning. “If there were any nits to be picked, they’ve been picked.”

“It is now clear that Al Franken won the election. The Canvassing Board will meet tomorrow to wrap up its work and certify him the winner,” U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer, former chair of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, said in a statement Sunday. “With the Senate set to begin meeting on Tuesday to address the important issues facing the nation, it is crucial that Minnesota’s seat not remain empty.”

“Senator Schumer will likely play a key role in determining who ultimately assumes this Senate seat,” responded U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, chair of the National Republican Senatorial Committee. “Pre-judging the outcome while litigation is still pending calls into question his ability to impartially preside over this matter when it comes before the Committee, as it most certainly will.”

Cornyn elaborated on his position and the likelihood of a filibuster over seating Franken this morning on CNN’s “American Morning.” Excerpts after the jump. Here are excerpts from Cornyn’s Monday appearance on CNN’s “American Morning” program:

CNN: So you’re saying that the legal avenues for Norm Coleman have not been exhausted. You don’t want Al — Al Franken to be seated, or anyone to be seated, until all the legal challenges in Minnesota are up?

CORNYN: That’s correct. And the — and the the rules to the Senate — Rule Two of the rules of the Senate require an election certificate. In Minnesota, that has to be signed by both the secretary of state and the governor, and it can’t be issued before seven days have expired after the canvassing board’s decision. So we’re getting closer to a resolution but we’re not there yet. …

CNN: Are you guys going to filibuster?

CORNYN: Well, in filibuster, of course, in the Senate means unless you can get 60 votes to proceed, then — then you don’t. We continue debating it. And I think that is the likelihood here if the Democrats try to ignore the Senate Rule Two and Minnesota law and try to short-circuit this process.

Politico questions McCain’s temperament:

On Thursday afternoon, McCain swept into Washington, walked to his office with pal Joe Lieberman, said little at a contentious White House meeting, did a few TV interviews, sped off to his home and proclaimed, through a spokesperson, that he was “optimistic” about bringing House Republicans “on board.”

McCain’s high-wire intervention in the financial crisis is his latest showstopper move – and his riskiest. He might succeed, but the candidate’s penchant for the dramatic has also raised anew potentially damaging questions of his age, executive abilities and, most of all, his temperament.

Here’s Joe Klein’s analysis:

McCain’s erratic, and irresponsible, behavior this week isn’t happening in a vacuum. This isn’t just politics–even George W. Bush, who never failed to take a partisan advantage in his presidency, realizes that. It is a time for leadership, a time for John McCain to explain to his fellow Republicans that this is one moment where government activism is absolutely necessary, that they have to get behind the Paulson compromise–and also try to explain to the general public, as Bush did on Wednesday night, that their savings and mortgages may be at stake if federal action isn’t taken. We’ve seen nothing like that from McCain. Just histrionics.

John Judis is even more brutal:

It is simply unpatriotic–it’s an insult to flag, country, and all the things that McCain claims to hold dear–for McCain to hold this financial crisis hostage to his political ambitions. McCain doesn’t know a thing about finance and is [in] no position to help work out an agreement. If we do suffer a serious bank run, or a run on the dollar, it can be laid directly at his feet. As I said to friends last night, if McCain had been president at this point, I would have wanted to impeach him.

Then there’s this hilarious bit from First Read:

During a speech on the Senate floor this morning, Sen. Chuck Schumer (D) urged President Bush to “respectfully tell Sen. McCain to get out of town. He’s not helping.” …

He added, “When you inject presidential politics into some of the most difficult negotiations under normal circumstances, it is fraught with difficulty. Before McCain made his announcement, we were making great progress. Now after his announcement, we are behind the 8 ball. We have to put things back together again.” …

“So this is a plea to President Bush, for the sake of America, please get your party in line. Get the House Republicans to be more constructive; get Sen. McCain to leave town and not throw fire on these flames. And maybe we can get something done.”

In this drama, the president thrusts Senate staffer Bauerly, a Concordia College grad who’s an expert in election law and voting rights, onstage with the notorious von Spakovsky — Bauerly’s arch-rival in the sense that they battled as volunteers on opposite sides in the 2000 Florida presidential election recount.

Oddly, it’s not the first time Bauerly has figured in a drama orchestrated by someone with the power to make members of Congress walk and talk. “Cynthia Bauerly” is a character in the play “Among Friends” by Chicago playwright Kristine Thatcher, whose works also include a play about the late U.S. Rep. Barbara Jordan. Reached by phone, Thatcher said she’d made up the name. The real Bauerly, who got her law degree not far away at Indiana University, isn’t a friend or acquaintance — draining all post-Indiana primary political significance from this “Among Friends” line: “Maybe you can buy Dick Mills at the Sun Times, maybe you can buy Cindy Bauerly and the Lake County Board of Commissioners. But you can’t buy me, Dan. You can’t buy me.”