Denver and the West.

Sen. Mark Udall will try to attach a credit card consumer rights bill to key legislation extending unemployment benefits and Rep. Betsy Markey is sponsoring a bill to freeze cardholders' interest rates.

Both are the latest in series of moves by the two Democrats to protect card users from arbitrary rate hikes prior to February, when the Credit Card Accountability Responsibility and Disclosure Act, or CARD, takes effect.

With health care reform still in for a tough slog and much of the rest of the Barack Obama's ambitious domestic agenda on hold until next year, credit card companies have become a new punching bag for Democrats.

Some haven't helped their images by seeking to raise rates in the months before CARD goes into effect or — as Citibank and Bank of America did recently - announcing they would place new fees on cardholders who don't carry a balance.

Last week, Udall introduced a bill to move the effective date of CARD to Dec. 1. When Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn., introduced a bill to freeze rates immediately, Udall joined that effort as an original co-sponsor.

After several appearances on cable news shows calling for card companies to pledge to act responsibly, Markey on Wednesday introduced a House version of Dodd's bill and firing off a letter to Citibank and Bank of America.

"Penalizing consumers for responsible credit practices is both absurd and unfair," she wrote, noting the $45 billion in bailout funds the companies have each received in the last year.

All the focus is partly defensive, said Floyd Ciruli, a pollster in Denver. Among the Democrats biggest weaknesses going into next year's elections may be anger that the government bailed out Wall Street - which is now recovering - while many ordinary workers remain jobless.

"That's a vulnerability for Democrats," Ciruli said. "A good inoculation against that is to take on the banks and credit card companies on the interest-rate issue."