. . .with regard to how to respond to this, I think. It could be time to own this legislative breakdown, and hug it like hell.
Boehner & Co. should come out of the gate, first thing tomorrow, and say some approximation of the following:
“The fact is, after the way things went down in the House yesterday, a lot of Republicans were pretty angry. Most of them weren’t happy with the idea of voting for it to begin with. Many felt they were jawboned into supporting a piece of legislation they had far too little input into shaping, but had resigned themselves into supporting in the hopes that a shared sense of obligation to the public would unite the Congress toward the goal of stabilizing the economy. When it instead turned out that the vote was going to be used by Democrats as a means to browbeat Republicans for their own failings, it became clear that the shared sense of obligation was a sham.
“For years now, Republicans have tried to warn the public about the peril that institutions like Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have posed to the nation’s economy, only to be thwarted at every turn. When the bill finally came due for all the years of Democrat malfeasance, and it reached the level of a crisis that threatened the underpinnings of our free market, many in the Republican caucus had determined that discretion was the better part of valor, decided to bite the bullet, and go along with a compromise that they weren’t necessarily comfortable with, but had been convinced by the Administration and Secretary Paulson was necessary.
“But, when the moment of truth arrived, and the time came to stand and be counted, what was thought to be an opportunity to demonstrate a commitment to preserving stability in our economy while compromising on longstanding areas of disagreement on what role government should play in it, the Democratic leadership decided that it was an opportunity to evade accountability for their years of malign neglect by shifting the blame they richly deserve onto those of us who had warned against impending calamity.
“Let’s be clear about this: there is not one person in our caucus who has been encouraged by his constituents to go along with this bailout. It’s obvious that the American people are opposed to it. They’ve heard the warnings of all the experts and the administration, and have remain convinced that this is the wrong way to do it. While many in our caucus were initially persuaded that the crisis had reached such a level of urgency that we would have to cast our votes in favor of it and hope to later persuade our constituents that it was the right thing to do, and pray that we turned out to be right, it is becoming more and more clear that the American people have made up their minds on this matter, and they simply will not tolerate this bailout in its current form.
“Having seen how the loyal opposition chose to misrepresent the years of its own willful irresponsibility with regard to our financial institutions, our skepticism toward the initial agreement won out. We simply cannot in good conscience betray the trust of our constituents by both voting against them in a matter in which they’ve clearly made up their minds, and compound that betrayal by failing to hold accountable those who are responsible for the crisis we face. To ask the members of the Republican caucus to support such legislation in the face of such opposition from the American people, while at the same time asking them to subject themselves to a nakedly partisan attempt to avoid taking responsibility for the gross misconduct that brought it about, is something that we cannot stand for in good conscience.
“So, to those who seek to portray congressional Republicans as having killed this bill, our response is, ‘Damn right we killed it!’”
