At 9:30 this morning, Senator (and Presidential Candidate) Chris Dodd will open his first hearing for the Banking Committee, and I will be his first witness.

There will be a webcast, so you might get to see the human representative of your own card company. There will be representatives from CapitalOne, Barclaycard, and JP Morgan Chase. The list of players also includes Professor Robert Manning, author of Credit Card Nation; Travis Plunkett of Consumer Federation of America, Tamera Draut of Demos; and consumer lawyer Michael Donovan.

I promise to report more today--including the webcast link if I can find it. But the fact of this hearing, just days into the new Congress, says something about changing priorities in Washington. It's only a hearing, but change in DC often starts with hearings. It gives me hope that the winds in Washington may be shifting ever so slightly.