Nancy Pelosi Derails Bailout

The nation is facing an economic crisis, right? Time to put country first.

So what does Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi do?

Watch.



Pelosi didn't act like a leader. She acted like a partisan hack.

What was she thinking?

I think it's possible she knew that she failed to get fellow Dems to support her. Since she knew she didn't have the votes, she took the opportunity, once again, to shift blame to the Republicans.

It's also possible that her incredible poor judgment and amazing lack of bipartisan leadership is directly responsible for causing Republicans to make a last minute switch in response to her bitter political speech.

The fact is the Democrats must take responsibility for the current economic situation and they must take responsibility for their inability to put country first.

Bottom line: Barack Obama in the White House and his liberal colleagues running the Congress would be disastrous for the country.
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WASHINGTON -- In a stunning vote that shocked the capital and worldwide markets, the House on Monday defeated a $700 billion emergency rescue for the nation's financial system, ignoring urgent warnings from President Bush and congressional leaders of both parties that the economy could nosedive without it.

Stocks plummeted on Wall Street, beginning their plunge even before the 228-205 vote to reject the bill was officially announced on the House floor. The Dow Jones industrials sank nearly 700 points for the day.

..."No" votes came from both the Democratic and Republican sides of the aisle. More than two-thirds of Republicans and 40 percent of Democrats opposed the bill.

...Republicans blamed Pelosi's scathing speech near the close of the debate — which attacked Bush's economic policies and a "right-wing ideology of anything goes, no supervision, no discipline, no regulation" of financial markets — for the vote's failure.

"We could have gotten there today had it not been for the partisan speech that the speaker gave on the floor of the House," Minority Leader John Boehner said. Pelosi's words, the Ohio Republican said, "poisoned our conference, caused a number of members that we thought we could get, to go south."

Rep. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., the whip, estimated that Pelosi's speech changed the minds of a dozen Republicans who might otherwise have supported the plan.

..."We're all worried about losing our jobs," Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., declared in an impassioned speech in support of the bill before the vote. "Most of us say, 'I want this thing to pass, but I want you to vote for it — not me.' "

With their dire warnings of impending economic doom and their sweeping request for unprecedented sums of money and authority to bail out cash-starved financial firms, Bush and his economic chiefs have focused the attention of world markets on Congress, Ryan added.

"We're in this moment, and if we fail to do the right thing, Heaven help us," he said.

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The Roll Call

How Wisconsin's representatives voted

YES: Dave Obey (D-Wis.); Ron Kind (D-Wis.); Gwen Moore (D-Wis.); Paul Ryan (R-Wis.); Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.).

NO: Steve Kagen (D-Wis.); Jim Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.); Thomas Petri (R-Wis.).

More on Kagen's vote.