After a long week of tough talk from the Dems on financial reform, the weekend started on an off note, with the administration offering a key concession to Republicans.

The Obama administration is telling Senate Democrats to ditch a measure in their financial reform bill that would create a $50 billion liquidation fund by assessing a fee on big financial institutions. The fund is intended to be used to cover the cost of winding down large firms, when they fail. According to the Associated Press, the administration would like the financial industry to cover the cost of liquidation after an institution has been dismantled. Perhaps not coincidentally, this is a measure Republicans oppose, on the grounds, they say, that the mere existence of the fund will incentivize risk taking, and lead to more bailouts.

That's also the provision Mitch McConnell and other Republicans used the Luntz "permanent bailout" rhertoric, the talking points Senate Dems, the DNC, and the White House launched a "tough" campaign against. It's reminiscent of the Republicans calling the end-of-life care provisions "death panels" and allowing undocumented workers to purchase insurance with their own money "illegal immigrants getting our health care," lies which the White House and Dems loudly denounced, but then conceded to by removing the provisions.

Predictably, the results are about the same as with the health reform concessions.

Senate Republicans say they're prepared to work constructively with Democrats on a consensus financial reform bill. But this weekend, after the White House offered up a key substantive concession, they swatted President Obama's hand away in a fashion that was all too reminiscent of their strategy of opposition to health care reform. "We ought to go back to the drawing board," Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said on CNN Sunday morning. Likewise, moderate Republican Scott Brown (R-MA), once considered a swing vote on regulatory reform, explicitly threatened to vote to block the bill from even being debated. Asked by CBS' Bob Schieffer if he'd filibuster the bill rather than let it come to the Senate floor, Brown was unequivocal: "In this particular instance, yes," he said.

And in a move that just feels all too familiar, Geithner will meet with Collins this afternoon.