[Cboldt]

-- There was a major discussion among the Republican leaders over this vote. ... By having some of their people support this it stripped the Dems of a huge issue ... --

If what you say is true, and I have no reason to doubt it, is makes the GOP worse rather than better.

[wildandcrazyrussian]

It's even worse than I thought, if the Republican leaders actually had a major discussion about this before the vote! I had assumed there were just 85 Rs (plus the 220 Ds) who were absolutely stupid, but to find out that the stupidity ewas engineered??

This is about as dumb as McCain suspending his campaign to "work on" the stimulus plan, when he ended up doing nothing and being seen as weak. He could have won the election if he had stood AGAINST Paulson's blackmail threat against the country in September.

Here, the GOP could have won credit from the voters for standing AGAINST the current regime's fascist tactics. All the above arguments (un-Constitutional ex post facto and bill of attainder laws; government threats against American citizens who did nothing wrong; confiscatory taxation exceeding 100%; and so much else) are as valid as ever.

The GOP threw away a historic opportunity to stand for the United States Constitution against a demagogue. And I truly believe we will see more and more of a slide toward tyranny from Obama and the other Democrats.