Commentary’s John Podhoretz:
Perhaps the House Republicans whose objections to the bailout bill gave sufficient cover to House Democrats terrified of their constituent calls to join them in torpedoing the legislation will be proved right somehow, and legislation can be substantively improved or the market can somehow stabilize on its own in the intervening days before a new bill can be designed. Perhaps the stock markets around the world will not crash. Perhaps the credit markets will not instantly calcify. Perhaps the fact that Republicans broke against the bill 2-to-1 will not lead to a general consensus that the failure of the bailout legislation was entirely due to Republicans, since 94 Democrats voted against it as well. Perhaps people will accept the Republican complaint that Nancy Pelosi gave a really nasty speech just before the vote tally and made ten Republicans so angry they decided to vote “nay.”
Perhaps.
But probably not.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122270859197986331.html
the idea that Republicans voted against the bill because Nancy Pelosi insulted them is PATHETIC. I would NEVER vote for a congressman who was that petty.
Not saying that I support the bill-—although I don’t see it as bad as some others do. Many of the mortgages will be bought at less than 50% of their value, and can be saved with restructuring and a better interest rate. The money will come back into the system. In fact, many economists are saying that it could be a net profit, although in the short term it is a MASSIVE hit.