The House is about to take up Financial Services Committee chairman Barney Frank's (D-MA) bill setting restrictions on the $350 billion of new bailout money sought by Barack Obama -- legislation that Democrats apparently don't believe is necessary to pass into law.

The bill is currently in the Rules Committee, that famously procedure-driven outpost that controls floor debate in the lower chamber of Congress. (For a great primer on the Rules panel, read Matt Taibbi's masterful 2005 piece on then-Rep. Bernie Sanders.) As you can see by the rules for appearing before Rules, getting one's amendment accepted by the House ain't easy -- a fact that held true under GOP control as well as Democratic.

As MarketWatch noted, Financial Services panel members weren't given a chance to offer amendments in the committee either. But look at all the damn good amendments that were thrown out there!

Rep. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) would retroactively apply the bill's executive compensation rules to banks that got bailout cash under George Bush. Rep. Patrick Murphy (D-PA) would pry out more information from the Fed about its purchase of mortgage-backed securities. Rep. Brad Sherman (D-CA) would prevent companies from transferring stock en masse to their senior executives while getting bailout money.

Too bad that none of these are likely to see the light of day -- but then again, the oversight bill itself is headed for a dead stop in the Senate.