FAILout

In case you haven't heard, this morning the House rejected the bailout, by a vote of 205-228. I'll echo Chris Bowers' glee that this extremely bipartisan vote happened to cut against the elite consensus, bringing together the left and the far right, the exact opposite of what centrist Broderite "bipartisanship" always demands; and while David Sirota is characteristically overexcited in calling it a "populist revolt," it certainly is exciting to see a bill like this deep-sixed by grassroots popular pressure. (No thanks to centrist Blue Dogs like Jim Marshall of Georgia, locked in a tight reelection race right now, who reportedly told the caucus that he'd "give up [his] seat" to support the bailout. FAIL!)

That's the good news: we have a Congress which for once is responsive to the public. But--

--BUT--

--but, now we're left with a financial system that's continuing to implode. And Treasury's taken its shot, so the ball is clearly in Congress' court to come up with a sensible plan. And anything which will actually help the situation (suggestions? anyone? ...Bueller?) is likely to look even more like socialism, so good luck convincing those cranky Republican wingnuts to back, for instance, bank nationalization.

("Wingnut" is the word, incidentally. Good for them for stopping the bailout; but these are people who instead proposed, in total seriousness, that the government shouldn't buy these assets but rather insure them. Think that through for a minute and you'll realize how BUGSHIT INSANE it is. That's how deep their market fundamentalism runs.)

Then, if Congress winds up half-assing it or doing nothing -- which of course never ever happens -- watch for wily Republicans in 2010 to pin the full-blown depression right on Nancy Pelosi's nose. And they'll have a point. So Democrats have a responsibility to put together a plan, and quickly -- during election season -- with a Republican president and a panicked public -- for an unbelievably complex institutional problem which may in fact have no solution at all. Have I said FAIL enough times to get my message across yet?

Blasphemy

First thing’s first: The Republicans are wrong about off-shore drilling. It’s just another kowtow to the oil companies that control them, and it will produce little to no oil for years to come, not to mention that fact that it just furthers our addiction. There, now that’s out of the way.

I also recognize that yesterday’s Republican protest on the House floor was nothing but a political stunt designed to win points and get people like me buzzing about it.

Well, it worked.

If you haven’t heard, yesterday Nancy Pelosi successfully adjourned the House for a five-week vacation without allowing a vote on offshore drilling. In response, the Republicans refused to leave the floor, staying instead to give rousing speeches in the dark, without microphones, and only to the 30 or so members of the public in the gallery, since CSPAN turns its cameras off when the House is adjourned. Kudos to Rep. John Culberson of Texas, who used Twitter and Qik to post instant updates.

Go ahead, click the link and read the whole Politico post. I promise you won’t be able to get through the whole thing without smiling at least a little. And that’s my point.

The Republicans managed to inspire me on an issue I completely disagree with them about. Can you imagine Congressional Democrats doing that? Of course you can’t. If you could, we would have seen evidence of it in the past two years.

But instead all we’ve gotten is a half-hearted attempt to seem like they’ve accomplished everything (or at least anything) they’ve said they’re going to accomplish.

Speaker Pelosi gets to hide behind the fact that the Senate is holding everything up due to the 60-vote cloture rule. But where is the attempt to rally the American people behind these bills? Where was the response to the talk radio condemnation of immigration reform last summer, which got so many people to call their Senators that it jammed the Senate switchboard and scared Members into voting against it?

We haven’t had that kind of movement surrounding any issue, and Nancy Pelosi is as much to blame for that as Harry Reid, who, well, I’ve dealt with his lack of energy on this blog before. And when he dared Senate Republicans to give up their break to debate the energy crisis, they may not have taken him up on it, but the House Republicans sure did; several of them turned around from their trips home to give speeches during the protest.

In contrast, the only thing we’ve had to be excited about in the last two years is a guy who is currently tied with John McCain when he should be ten points ahead (more on that in a future post).

So congratulations to the House Republicans, who managed to stand up for something they believe in, rather than sitting around hoping an election will fix everything.