Grass-roots clout

The new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, a hallmark of President Obama's financial overhaul proposals that were given final approval yesterday in Congress, is a good stroke for average people. It's designed to offer protection from predators when it comes to mortgages, credit cards and various big-bank products. The bureau will be a sort of clearinghouse for information and an enforcer of regulations.

Except, the Associated Press reports, when it comes to community banks (those with less than $10 billion in assets) and automobile dealers, both of which deal in large volumes of loans.

There is no good reason for this exemption except that these groups typically include grass-roots community leaders with political clout who know how to intimidate elected officials on Capitol Hill. And that's not a good reason.

The auto dealers may not do loans, but they're connected to lending institutions, and those businesses will fall under regulation. Dealers often use financing options to sway potential buyers, so they're really part of the system.

As for community banks, they've long argued that they're not the Wall Streeters who helped plunge the country into a deep economic crisis, that they're closer to their customers, that they provide services in which big banks are not interested. But why should they resist a financial protection bureau? The bureau is supposed to root out the rascals, not the good guys.

So these groups have now opened themselves for the question, "What are you afraid of?" And they've demonstrated, one more time, that the ears of lawmakers perk up most attentively when the special interests are speaking.