The majority leader of the House should have held up a mirror to the Republicans, not a finger, if only to find out if the vampires of free enterprise had a reflection.

Because Republicans are two faced. Boehner told her Sunday night he thought he had the votes. Monday morning they wimped out. It was planned that way. They do not want to take any responsibility if it doesn't work and because it is not popular with their constituents and they are worried about reelection. It is not popular with anyone but something needs to be done to stop the bleeding until a new President, Obama, is in office in January.

They want to play politics and pretend that they are revolting against the Bush when they had 7 1/2 years to revolt. They lack courage; they lack committment to the country. They are committed to keeping their seats in the House. They should have used all their mic and camera time posturing since Saturday morning to explain to those constituents who were calling them that unless we bail out Wall Street we all go under, like this morning. That we are Wall Street; we drive the economy.

What a bunch of sick and sorry clowns. I say Democrats should bite the bullit and forge ahead and complete the irrelevance that the Republicans have made of themselves.

The Republicans (right) are always spouting off about the benefits of the Free Market economy. And so, I would think, that anybody who professes to hold truck with that doctrine, would be THANKFUL that Pelosi made her speech which persuaded her Republican colleagues to hold firm and not drink the bailout Kool-aid.

So which is it-- they believe in the Free Market economy which should be allowed to correct itself and thus Pelosi did them a favor?

Or, in their heart of hearts, they know that the Free Market doctrine only benefits the wealthy and elite while everyone else is stuck holding the bag, and thus are being publically revealed as disingenuous ingrates who will say and do anything to suck up to their fat-cat overlords?

The problem with living on the right is that it gets mighty difficult to remember which lies go with which position.

Re: "But c'mon: 60 percent? So, while Clyburn is up there now praising that 60 percent and decrying the GOP's 67 percent nay votes, there's still no explanation for why the Dem leaders could not keep their coalition together."

I've had about enough of this crap!

Every time Republicans do something colossally stupid or ideological (to the extent there is a difference), the alibi that we always hear is that "The Democrats didn’t stop us, so it's all their fault".

That is pure, unadulterated bullshit.

Democrats got enough votes to pass it. The Republican President of the US backed it. Republicans in the House killed it because they could not get a Capital Gains tax cut included in it. They wanted to turn the bill into a Christmas tree for their contributors, and held America (and the world) hostage to that.

Whatever happens next is 100% the Republican's fault. No more excuses that "no one stopped me". If I see someone rob a convenience store and does not jump in their way, well... shame on me. But that does not make the criminal innocent of robbery. That is alibi that Republicans toss out every time they pull another stunt.

Enough.

Republicans are to blame.

Completely.

Let's hold them accountable, for a change.

1) Democrats are not likely support a Bush plan for sweeping power for the executive branch.

2) The best version of a bad plan might be tolerable, but it might not.

3) This close to an election, it is awfully tough for a Dem to vote in favor of an wildly unpopular Bush plan, even with some improvements in oversight.

4) Big pieces are still missing from the bill. More on pricing, is one example. More explanation of how lessening the impacts on mortage holders will impact the value of the warrants, is another example.

5) Because anything that Bush is pushing hard for loses credibility, especially when he can't even deliver his own caucus.

6) Because if a majority of the GOP won't support bill demanded by a GOP president, why should a congressperson set his/herself for attack when s/he was simply being bipartisan? (Note: this is different than #5 because Bush himself is the issue there.)

7) Because it remains a Wall St bailout, with rather little for the middle class, let alone the lower class.

8) Because the best that economists can say is that it is better than nothing.

You want more? I'm sure that I could go on and on.

I'm hoping most of the democratic opposition came about because they have heard form their constituents and will demand greater regulation. Then they can pass a bill that benefits the tax payers- a bailout is not appetizing but if you can convince the public that it is needed to keep the economy afloat AND they get some ROI AND they get some new regulations that should have been in place to prevent this. The republicans pushed back to hard on a bill that was pretty friendly to industry. They and Bush can stand in the way.

Remember, the republicans will try to spin a positive in their way no matter what. They are often very sucessful. The deomocratic leadership needs to push back very forcefully. Hey maybe they frame it like this- put up another bill with stronger regulations. Let Bush veto it- then you can say it is clearly not that urgent if the big-business party is willing to stand in the way to get their way. Let's wait until the new year and when President Obama will sign a bill that includes protections for the tax-payer.

thanks Nancy.

It was negotiated through bipartisan efforts and the proposal originated with a republican president. So those who say that the Democrats failed for not making 75-80% of their members vote for the bill can go f*ck themselves.

I wouldn't want the bill to pass unless there was a majority of GOP reps voting for it, because you KNOW they will be blaming the Democrats if everything doesn't work out perfectly.

I hate the idea of buying these loans, and would rather spend another week to beat some sanity into the process. Let the lenders keep the bad loans and add capital via acquiring preferred stock interests. Anything else is pure bullshit.