The signs are everywhere that the Obama Administration and corporatist Democrats are panicked over the possibility that the Senate financial reform bill might get out of hand and actually, uh, reform the financial industry. So they’ve called out the troops to encourage a cloture vote before there’s any assurance that important amendments to strengthen the bill will be brought to a vote.

We’ve already seen the sorry spectacle of Chris Dodd proposing to kill meaningful derivative reform by requiring that a panel composed of Administration opponents of reform study it before killing it outright. [Update via TPM: Dodd puts it on hold while Lincoln faces a runoff.] As David Dayen summarizes here (a must read), other amendments are also being frustrated by Republicans, corporatist Dems and Senate rules.

More from Roll Call:

Several Democratic sources said getting the 60 votes needed to beat back an attempted filibuster, or invoke cloture, could fall short at the 2 p.m. vote because several Democrats are angry that they have not been able to get votes on their amendments.

. . .

Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) vowed on the floor to press his amendment and was seen huddling with the parliamentarian in an attempt to prevent his proposal to allow states to regulate credit card rates marketed in their jurisdiction from being declared nongermane after cloture has been invoked.

Asked whether he would support ending debate Wednesday, Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) — who wants a vote on his ATM fee amendment — said, “Well, we’ll see,” as he headed to the floor Wednesday morning.

Similarly, Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.) waited on the floor and strategized with other Democrats on how to get a vote on his amendment to ban “naked swaps.” Senate Banking Chairman Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) huddled with Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), who was hoping to get a vote on her amendment with Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) to reimpose Depression-era restrictions on banks, insurance companies and securities firms. However, McCain said he doubted the proposal would come up for a vote.

Sens. Carl Levin (D-Mich.) and Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) also were seen on the floor talking as they waited to see whether their plan to ban banks from proprietary derivatives trading would come up.

It now appears the Levin-Merkley amendment can only pass if it’s attached to a bad amendment by Sam Brownback that seeks to exempt auto dealers from regulation to prevent lending scams.

From Simon Johnson, discussing the importance of the Levin-Merkley amendment to include the "Volker Rule" to restrict proprietary trading by commercial banks that have the benefit of federal deposit guarantees:

This is a defining issue for the president. Either he takes up the Volcker Rule – proposed by his administration, to great fanfare (and some skepticism) in January. Or he rolls over – admitting that Wall Street has won.

We know where Goldman Sachs and its fellow travellers stand on this issue – adamantly and publicly opposed. And we pointed out here in February which way the Republicans were likely to go. . . .

Don’t move on. Pick up the baseball bat that Paul Volcker has given you. Either that or go down to the most embarrassing, humiliating, and memorable defeat in the history of Wall Street-Washington confrontations. It’s the president’s call.

But we’re getting this from the President’s field commanders at Organizing for America:

The House has already passed reform. And today’s Senate vote is one of the last hurdles to landing a bill on President Obama’s desk.

But over the last two weeks we’ve seen the big banks’ lobbyists aren’t ready to give in yet. They’ve been working hard to slip loopholes and exemptions into the final bill.

So far, with your help, we’ve been able to keep Wall Street reform strong — with powerful protections for consumers and tough provisions that would rein in the big banks.

But, with the vote today, the lobbyists are going into overdrive. They know if we can get senators like Scott Brown to vote for strong reform, they have no chance of stopping this legislation from becoming law.

Help us put the pressure on Sen. Brown today by calling in your support for the bill at at (202) 224-4543.

Yep. That’s it. Close off the amendments and let’s get this baby safely over, because it would be terrible if Glass-Steagall that gave us 50 years of stability were brought back. And it would be awful if credit card rates and ATM fees were regulated, banks couldn’t bet with your money, and the banksters didn’t have the freedom to use derivatives trading to screw their customers and tank the economy again.

Update: Cloture vote fails in Senate, 57-42. Feingold and Cantwell among the holdouts. David Dayen has been closely tracking the bill, so be sure to check for more updates at FDL’s News Desk.

More:

Rortybomb/Mike Konczal: Levin-Merkely can’t get a vote

Between the last minute changes, the way the bill has morphed into an endless stream of studies to be ignored at a later date, the dropping of any of the strong progressive resolution mechanisms in the House and the blocking of votes and discussion on Dorgan, Merkley-Levin and Cantwell’s amendments, this has really been a massacre of what was originally a fairly decent bill. Both Reid and the President need to step in before this situation becomes even worse.

WashPost: Financial bill gets last minute amendment from Dodd
Baseline Scenario/Simon Johnson: Finally, the Republicans come out to fight; where is the President?; also, James Kwak, Sam Brownback’s Staff are amateurs
RollCall: Intraparty battle threatens vote on financial reform