“Well if that stopped people from voting, then shame on them. If people’s feelings were hurt because of a speech and that led them to vote differently than what they thought the national interest (requires), then they really don’t belong here. They’re not tough enough.” Barney Frank – D-Mass

Of course, I don’t want to see the U.S.A. spiral into a recession either, so I hope I don’t have to eat crow for this blog anytime soon, figuratively or literally…

Some Republicans are blaming Nancy Pelosi for causing the defeat of the Bailout Bill, as she ripped into Bush for helping to cause the economic meltdown in the first place. House Minority Leader John Boehner said that it ‘Poisoned the Conference’. Roy Blunt estimated that Pelosi’s speech changed the minds of a dozen Republicans who might otherwise have supported the plan.

I think that is utter crap. I would go on about this, but I think that Barney Frank, one of the Massachusetts representatives, said it best when he said

“Well if that stopped people from voting, then shame on them. If people’s feelings were hurt because of a speech and that led them to vote differently than what they thought the national interest (requires), then they really don’t belong here. They’re not tough enough.”

Which underlines the real truth in this matter. One single speech, no matter how scathing, would not tip people to one side or another on such an important vote. What really happened is Bush and Paulson have finally done something that they have not even tried to do for eight whole years! They raised a strong Bi-Partisan force within the House of Representatives. It just so happens that it was there to defeat a poorly written Bailout Bill.