The New York Times editorial board gives Chris Dodd’s credit card legislation very high marks and urges the Senate to pass it swiftly and without reduction in its regulatory powers. Dodd blogged about the Credit Card Accountability Responsibility and Disclosure Act (Credit CARD Act) at Huffington Post recently. Dodd also did a live video chat at My Left Nutmeg, Connecticut’s main progressive community blog.

The Credit CARD Act will apply far greater restrictions to how banks treat their credit card customers, both while they are clients and when they are being recruited to be card holders. Additionally the Act gives customers far greater protections against usurious rates and unfair policies that aim to punish people for minor mistakes and small outstanding balances from larger initial debts.

The Senate Republican caucus is going to fight tooth and nail against any legislation that makes life harder for the credit card industry. But it’s critical that Dodd and the Democrats stand up for this good piece of legislation and not let conservatives water it down in the slightest. In these tough economic times, we can’t let working Americans be taken advantage of by unscrupulous credit card companies. For a man who is reviled by his opponents on the right for being a friend of the banking industry, it’s deeply satisfying to see Dodd do what he’s always done – stand alongside working Americans and protecting their interests from predatory banks and lenders. The great irony is that while the Rob Simmons, Kevin Rennie, Sean Hannity and the NRSC unfairly attack Dodd for being a friend of the banks, they and their Republican buddies in the Senate be fighting to protect the interests of their friends and campaign contributors in the credit card industry against Dodd’s progressive legislation. And, of course, they will do this with a straight face.