The public would have reacted better if they had been given the facts. The part of the public that relies on MSM did not get the facts--and unfortunately, that's a big chunk of the public.
As for the legislators that pushed for the blockage, on the 'Rat side they were just trying to slap the Bush admin; on the (so-called) Republican side, they were mostly grandstanding for the upcoming election.
A pox on all of them.
I agree, if the adminitration would have come out with this earlier, and handled it properly, it wouldn't be like this now.