(Thumbnail Image: The Washington Post)

After blocking three attempts and being threatened with an all-night session, Senate Republicans have relented, allowing debate to begin on the much anticipated financial reform bill.

MSNBC's Rachel Maddow had a little fun explaining the Senate Democrats' secret weapon:

"For three days in a row now, Republicans have been filibustering Wall Street Reform — and it was going to come to ahead tonight — All-night votes, a slumber party in the United States Senate, woo-hoo! A senior Democratic leadership aide told the Huffington Post today, quote, 'We are rolling out the cots!'"

On CNN, Republican Sen. Saxby Chambliss of Georgia says some big disagreements were the roadblock between the bill and the floor.

"What I can tell you is, Sen. Shelby was successful in negotiating some tentative agreements on ensuring that there is no bank in America that is too big to fail. The legislation as drafted and put on the floor didn't guarantee that... That was a major issue, not the only issue.  That has been a major stumbling block."

But a correspondent for New York's local CBS affiliate, says allowing debate is not a sign of consent from Senate GOP.

"They don't want to be perceived as being sympathetic to Wall Street or helping to unleash another financial free-for-all so they did agree to debate this bill, but they're very clear about the fact that they oppose many key portions of the bill, and so this will be a long road before reform becomes reality."

A CBS News political analyst says the real question concerning financial reform is, what will it look like?

"What happens now is financial regulatory reform is going to pass. There will be policy debates, but the politics of this is that Democrats and Republicans will be trying to shape the final story for when the legislation does pass."

Finally, on Fox News, Democratic Sen. Mark Warner from Virginia says now that the bill is up for debate, there are high hopes for bipartisan agreement.

"There is nothing inherently kind of Democratic or Republican about trying to put new financial rules of the road in place... I sure as hope we can find some common ground and get a centrist bill here that'll set financial rules of the road not for the next year or so, but for the next 25 or 30 years."

So do you think financial reform will happen in the near future? Or are the two parties at an impasse?

Writer: Tracy Pfeiffer

Producer: Newsy Staff