"The house Republican leadership was for this bill, too. And only slightly more Republicans voted against it than Democrats. This was both parties rank and file telling their leadership to go to hell. John Boehner is even less in control of his caucus than Pelosi is of hers."

Absoulutely! Both sides need to be proud they told their respective leaderships to blow! I'm just happy to see the rank and file do what they knew to be right.

The market may hurt from this but it will recover. But if we bail out Wall Street, then they won't learn a thing and will do the same thing over again.

If it comes to the taxpayers hurting while the Wall Street banks pull thru with no pain, or all of us hurting together, I say "Let's all hurt together, learn from our mistakes and refuse to let it happen again."

"I don't like the idea of bailing out Wall Street one bit, but what is the alternative? What happens if access to credit dries up?"

The simple fact is, the stock market will take a hit no matter what happens. But if we simply let the market decide how this will be handled (i.e. let the market recover on it's own) then it will be a lot less expensive in the long run.

I just believe if you leave the market alone, it will take care of itself. It may not be pretty but at least you won't take a chance of the people on the Hill screwing it up again.

"Pelosi not only blew it by bringing the bill to a vote without the votes, she also blew it by giving a strident, partisan speech that alienated half of the bipartisan representatives."

I suspect Pelosi thought she had this one in the bag - bad mistake assuming that - and so called for the vote.

As for the speech, while I think it was a bad tactical error on her part, I doubt it caused her to lose this vote. I suspect everyone voting went into that room KNOWING how they were going to vote.

Still, it does seem Pelosi was almost pushing to lose that vote.

rizla420,

"If we expound the virtues of capitalism, you have to let it do its deed. THis is the cleansing. I dont care if credit dries up and more stuff sinks because of it. THis is called correction. THis is pain, this is how it works. If you want it, you get both sides of it.

Also, this is not a failure of REGULATION, this is a failure of OVERSIGHT. This is a failure of the credit rating agencies, corporate executives who knew they were over leveraged and relied on short term overnight loans to fund their long term capital investments. They RISKED big to make big. THey put themselves into a very precarious situation that could be impacted by externatlities."

AMEN! Glad to hear someone else say the same thing. This pain is something that we have to go thru to correct the market. It won't be fun, but it'll be better than making things worse then trying to let the market correct itself!

I have been so joyous that it failed! PERHAPS people will let the market deal with the losses and eventually absorb them. It will do that, if left alone!

Those of you who are fiscally conservative democrats...what did you think of McCain's suggestion that we put a moratorium on all spending for countries overseas (particularly those who do not like the U.S.) at least until we get spending under control here in the U.S.?

I kind of liked this idea myself. I wouldn't mind our stopping ALL government spending until we come up with a completely balanced budget!

ELYDOG,

I found this the other day...I found it quite interesting.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac Invest in Lawmakers

http://www.opensecrets.org/news/2008/09/update-fannie-mae-and-freddie.html

Not only did Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac invest in the very lawmakers who were voting for the bailout but Obama is the second highest receiver of funds.

Is this pertinent? Don't know but it DID surprise me!

"If you notice, those are individuals i.e. those employed by Freddie and Fanny."

I believe it shows both PACs and individuals as well.

Found this on YouTube by mistake.

Shocking Video Unearthed Democrats in their own words Covering up the Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac Scam that caused our Economic Crisis

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_MGT_cSi7Rs

Apparently it was BOTH Democrats and Republicans hiding this.

"Moreover, didn't Freddie and Fanny already get taken over?"

You got me...I just saw this and wondered if it had anything to do with how everyone voted. Still, it DOES concern me when people who profit from a business are also voting on whether to bail them out or not.

Frankly, I think this is ALL the people in Congress' fault...and we should vote the LOT of them out of office for STUPIDITY!

terkoy,

"

...for repealing the 1933 Glass-Steagall Act that provided prevention to greed with the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act of 1999 which empowered people like Frank, Dodd, Raines, Johnson, Paulson, who should all be in orange jumpsuits. I like the joke that people took out loans they could not pay back."

Wait a minute...you can't lay this SOLELY on Clinton! Remember it too Congress to do this too. So it's everyone who was in Washington at the time who did this...and those who CONTINUED to ignore the problem who are to blame!