Yesterday’s failed vote on the financial-industry “bailout” was a bitter harvest of years of hyperpartisan rancor, much of that the result of Republicans’ ideological extremism, overbearing tactics, demagoguery and refusal of accountability.
In a transparent act of feckless blame shifting, House Republicans charged Speaker Nancy Pelosi caused the bill’s defeat because her allegedly partisan and judgmental pre-vote speech offended them. (See our previous post, Pelosi’s truth hurt.)
Nobody bought their whopper and today Republicans dropped it like a hot potato. We take this as a long-overdue sign pundits and the public are recovering from whatever possessed them to accept so many GOP lies in recent years.
That said, we’re seeing plenty of indications people don’t understand the position Pelosi and House Democrats — 95 of whom voted against the bill — were in.
The housing bubble, all those bad mortgages and this entire debacle was caused by Republicans. The Bush administration decided self-regulation was all that was needed to keep the financial industry playing nice. Congressional Republicans supported this idiocy and refused to do oversight that might show otherwise.
Yesterday, Pelosi was no doubt torn between two strong desires: 1, Ensuring the economy doesn’t lapse into convulsions leading to paralysis; and 2, Reluctance right before an election to risk a political backlash if the plan didn’t work or people later decided it wasn’t necessary, whether or not it had worked.
If that was so, Pelosi could hardly be blamed. She and fellow House Democrats suffered for years under heavy-handed Republican rule. Their pleas for doing oversight fell on deaf Republican ears.
Under ex-Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., the Bush White House told House leaders what to do and not to do, and House Republicans marched in lockstep to those orders.
Any Republican member who got out of line invited trouble, from having pork-barrel goodies denied to his district, to being refused GOP campaign money, to having the party run someone against him in a primary.
So, the feeling among Pelosi and House Democrats yesterday was that if Republicans wanted a bailout, they should vote in substantial numbers to pass it, making the effort clearly bipartisan.
As the vote was held, Democrats saw many Republicans weren’t up for that. So, seeing no reason to stick their own necks out when Republicans wouldn’t, more and more Democrats voted against the bill as well. Thus, the defeat.
Today, House Democrats and Republicans are said to be working for a revised version of the bill, one that will attract the dozen or more additional votes needed to pass it.
House Democrats should explain their refusal to go out on a limb to benefit the Bush administration and Republican colleagues unwilling to do their own part.
House Republicans should put up or shut up.
I agree SW, from what I know Boehner, was in charge of getting enough GOP’s to support the bill passage….now that was the deal made among Democrats and Republicans. Boeher came up with a third of its members short of the passage.
>>>>The housing bubble, all those bad mortgages and this entire debacle was caused by Republicans.
I like Rich’s comment from below, where liberals on this site are so deep in kool aid they may never surface.
>>>>As the vote was held, Democrats saw many Republicans weren’t up for that. So, seeing no reason to stick their own necks out when Republicans wouldn’t, more and more Democrats voted against the bill as well. Thus, the defeat.
You’re kind of twisting in the wind here. The vote should reflect the merits of the bill, not some political finesse.
Good post!
People are seeing through the Republican b.s. nowadays. They see how expensive the war in Iraq is, they see where money could have been better spent elsewhere, they see homes foreclosing, jobs going away, prices going up, runaway government spending and runaway national debt… and they see which party has been leading us that direction for the last eight years.
The GOP may shout “No new taxes!” but the it seems like if a $700 billion bailout is passed, raising taxes is inevitable. So now the election choice may come down to whether people want no new taxes and the subsequent slashing of everything except the military by McCain, or whether they are willing to endure some tax increases under Obama to save the economy and the nation, and as much of our American way of life as possible?
Americans aren’t stupid. They are beginning to realize that the more dire the situation, the more likely the Republicans are to try and make some kind of power grab. Cloaked beneath nearly every Bush administration proposal is some exercise of power or sneaky increase of power over our people and our rights as citizens.
“a long-overdue sign pundits and the public are recovering from whatever possessed them to accept so many GOP lies in recent years. ”
I think the nation’s pundits and people are finally emerging from their post-”9-11″ stupor. I believe too many people have bought into the “”9-11″ Changed Everything” meme without considering that it didn’t really change everything… there are certain things that should have remained unchanged in the aftermath of that event, including reporting of events as they happen, without fear of reprisal from the administration if the news isn’t what the administration wants the people to hear. The intimidation of everyone by the Bush administration might not be such a big worry for pundits now that there are only about 110 days left of Bush-Cheney (that is, 110 days left if all goes well).
As the press feels more free to do its job, and as the people realize not only that there are more things being reported now but that the Bush administration is thoroughly corrupt, I believe things are getting back closer to normal in America. People are waking up.
Well, I think most are, anyway!
I agree it was Republican policies tailored to satisfy greed which got the economy to where it is today. Such problems will not be solved by the minds that created them. The party which has showed more fiscal restraint in the last eight years (that being the Democrats) needs to be the one taking the lead here.
Regulation and oversight needs to be in place to insure that such a situation is not allowed to build up again over decades. Sure, there are plenty of Dems who went along with this Republican crap, but there were also plenty of Dems who didn’t like what was happening and wanted to do something about it but were not allowed to do anything about it during the times of the Contract On America.
As for a bailout? I would agree with people who say this is not a good thing but that it is maybe necessary… This means I would be agreeing with Republicans as well as Democrats. As we saw with the vote, it wasn’t necessarily a clear-cut party-line thing, although when you look at how each party voted, it looks like one could say it was the GOP that killed it the first time. Sometimes I think Pelosi is pathetic, but blaming the defeat on Pelosi? Also pathetic. Glad people saw through that one, just like they saw through McCain “suspending his campaign”.
The GOP leaders should be desperate, because the facade is being taken away to reveal the party for what it has become, which is, well… not very nice.
Snave, it had to happen. Like Lincoln said, you can fool all of the people some of the time, but . . .
Helped by shock and fear after 9-11, Bush & Co. and neocon Republicans in Congress managed to extend the suspension of disbelief required for Bush to become president, so he got a second term that has been a disaster for the country (and for Republicans). But the fact so much of what Republicans are about stems from values most Americans don’t like or trust, “greed is good” being a prime example, meant the wheels had to come off their wagon at some point. Same goes for the fact that in poll after poll, asked about issues without party labels, most Americans agree with Democrats’ positions, and reject conservative Republicans’ positions.
I suspect at least some of the overdue change in media reporting and punditry we’re seeing results from concern about future access. Heck, ABC’s “This Week” might even upgrade from having nearly all-right-wing talking heads and GOP guests to going half and half with liberals and Dems. Imagine that!