The House just rejected the proposed $700-plus billion dollar bailout [5]. Let the recriminations begin. (Chris Matthews [6] is already acting as though Republicans killed it, despite 40% opposition from the Dems).
The American public was hit over the head with the language of "crisis", (an over-used word in our society, if you ask me) and asked (by people on both sides) to accept THIS "fix" because, if we didn't, the market would go to Hell in a handbasket. Well, it didn't pass, and the market is only down 6 1/2 percent. Not a meltdown.
As the old saying goes, there's more than one way to skin a cat.
I think that we've now got an oppotunity for something much improved. Something that actually abides by some free-market principles AND addresses some of the root causes [7] of the problem, (meaning some SERIOUS reform of Fanny and Freddie - or even better, privatization of them both).
In a way, the majority of the House Republicans (and even the Dems who opposed it) have saved McCain from having to support this dog in the Senate. Now he, and they, can propose their own version of a reform/rescue bill...and let the put the Democrats and Obama in a position of opposing it.
Besides, it's plain that the Democrats don't want anything to pass that McCain is "opposed" to, because they don't want him to be able to go out and campaign against it, (since they know the general public is overwhelmingly opposed to a bailout). Despite all this bi-partisan blather, it's plain that they intended on making it partisan, even in the process of supporting it. Witness Pelosi's speech [8] on the House floor.
Point being, he has the leverage...if he'll use it...to get something much, much better. Or at least put them on the record as opposing a real fix.
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More: Michelle Malkin [9] - Hot Air [10] - The Fix [11] - Outside the Beltway [12] - Right Wing [13] - Powerline [14]
