While Dodd's White House hopes ended after the Iowa caucuses on Thursday night, his voice still carries plenty of clout on Capitol Hill. As chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, he has ignited a feud with the financial services industry by proposing to give bankruptcy judges more leeway in how they treat home mortgages. And Dodd has lined up support from more than a dozen senators for a bill that would tighten predatory lending practices, which are blamed for driving thousands into foreclosure.

Business groups have no interest in reopening the 2005 bankruptcy bill, one of the first major achievements of Bush's second term, which passed when Republicans controlled Congress. But Dodd calls it "one of the worst pieces of legislation ever passed."

Yup. I remember the kiss to business by the Republicans. And also, Chet Edwards.

More than 801,000 personal bankruptcy filings were made last year, compared with more than 573,000 in 2006, according to statistics collected by the National Bankruptcy Research Center and released by the American Bankruptcy Institute (ABI) on Thursday.

"The roughly 40 percent spike in consumer bankruptcies during 2007 presages even higher filings this year, as the heavy consumer debt load is made worse by the home mortgage crisis," said ABI Executive Director Samuel Gerdano.