Pelosi's Failure

Sanity prevails.

Majority of House Republicans and a stunningly large minority of House Democrats took a step back a couple minutes ago and said, "stop."  There were too many problems with this bill, too many things that were decided too quickly without proper thinking.  Where was the money going to come from, how would it be distributed, who would distribute it, who would over see the distribution, how much should the secretary of the treasury really be allowed to have, have you given the American people enough time to properly understand this bill.  

Rome wasn't built in a day, my friends.  This problem is too large and too complex for me to believe that this Wall Street handover would be the be-all and end-all of our market.  Let the market be free, don't take it over.

This is a major defeat for Speaker Pelosi, who couldn't deliver nearly 100 of her votes.  She mishandled this from the beginning.  She froze out Boehner and the House Republicans in the planning stages, then called them unpatriotic for not supporting something they were barely allowed to have impute on, and then she has the temerity to rail on the failures of George Bush who was doing all he could to support her!  Just an unbelievable defeat for America's Mother-in-Law.  

It remains to be seen what the political ramifications are.  John McCain was kind of lukewarm to this, clearly.  But he equivocated.  In the next debate, if he can come out guns blazing talking about Democrats and their support of Fannie and Freddie and counter Obama's nonsense about Republicans being responsible for this because they hate regulation by reminding him that it was Republicans in 2004 trying to regulate Fannie and Freddie and it was McCain himself who authored a bill to do this, we might get somewhere.  

Locally, I'm just as surprised as D.J. McGuire is.  Just as he's shocked that Rob Wittman voted now, I'm shocked that a reliable free marketer like Tom Davis would vote for this monstrosity. 

NRO's Campaign Spot has the best quick reflections:

Pelosi, moments ago: "The Democrats more than lived up to their side of the bargain."

Horsepuckey. Pelosi has 235 members. She needed 218. She could spare 17 members and still pass the bill.

The GOP spotted her 65 members, for a bill that made most Republicans' skin crawl in both broad outline and in terms of detail.

That meant Pelosi could afford to lose 82 Democrats.

She lost 95.

Bush and Paulson were never going to pass this bill with House Republican votes. It had to be palatable to the Democrats, and Pelosi and Frank said that it was.

Think about it - the majority party is insisting that the minority party is responsible for the bill not passing with a majority. Do you see the incongruency there? Why is anyone taking that argument seriously?
UPDATE: Hoyer says "we got every gettable Democrat." If so, that's stunning.
Chuck Todd on MSNBC right now: "Every member in a tough race voted 'no'."
ANOTHER UPDATE: I'm not buying this "Pelosi's speech turned Republicans against it" argument. Either you think the bill is worthwhile (or that the cost of inaction is greater than the cost of action) and you vote for it, or you don't. Somebody else's speech is a lousy reason to change a vote on an issue as big as this...  

 I disagree with the last point.  For Nancy Pelosi to unleash an attack on Republicans and George Bush the way she did on the eve of a vote she has consistently framed as bi-partisan was astounding.  And to attack George Bush when he was her biggest backer was equally galling.  She was asking Republicans to swallow very hard to vote for this bill, and to attack them and rub their noses in it on the eve of the vote was both arrogant and stupid.  A hallmark of her speakership.  It also showed a complete lack of respect for the opposition, something she has made clear through the entire process.  A smart speaker - a Rayburn or an O'Neal - if they truly wanted Republican support to pass a vote would reach out, embrace them and their concerns, and work hard with them.  Instead, Pelosi screamed "crisis" then basically said "do what I say."  Not only "do what I say," but I'm going to attack you minutes before the vote just for funsies.  

She is a disgrace.