Not a story about poker, but an interesting op-ed nonetheless about a bipartisan effort in the US Senate to clarify financing options for college loans, grants, scholarships, etc …  In the piece, Times columnist Gail Collins uses the newly not-released Reid online poker bill as a comparative benchmark for a bill that everyone might want in principal yet still stalls at the peak of election season.

She explains:

Franken is hoping the Senate might take up his proposal next year. I presume you weren’t expecting anything sooner. Congress can’t even get it together to keep the Postal Service from defaulting. And the Senate leaders admitted the other day that they’re not going to be able to pass a bipartisan bill to legalize Internet gambling on poker, which seems to be a really high priority for some important people. If they can’t do poker, they are not going to get to student loan transparency.

So OMG did they just call the PPA Harry Reid Big Casinos the 2+2 community poker players “important people”?  Whoop-whoop! Wait your turn whiney college bitchez! And yet with the online poker bill(s) … well, the implication is that any stalemates in Washington DC are now all but official.  (Or at least that’s what our Senate Majority Leader would like us to believe!) So bummer, but not a shocker going into the Presidential debates … hope may still be alive, but no matter what your special interest, it’s gonna have to wait until at least 2013.

Of course for poker being #1 at the gate probably means we can expect an artificial bubble of opportunity in states looking to move forward with their own online gambling legislation a la Nevada and/or Delaware …

ALT HED: Four More Years?