The bailout — success from the jaws of defeat?

I’ve done some blogging on the bailout — here on today’s failure in the House and here’s a link to more.

It looks like the WSJ thinks the House vote was a blessing in disguise. I agree with them.

From the link:

Don’t Panic.

By throwing out a deeply flawed bailout plan, the House may have created an opportunity to craft a more effective response to the financial crisis.

With credit markets frozen and the Dow Jones Industrials Index plummeting 777.68 points Monday, the 228-205 defeat of the rescue package appears to come at the worst possible time. Plenty of experts think the “no” vote has the power to wipe what little confidence remains in the markets.

But it also could lead policy makers, particularly Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, to draw up a plan that more directly addresses the factors causing the financial system to fall apart.

The House scuttles bailout plan

And the market takes a big hit.

From the link:

The House on Monday defeated a $700 billion emergency rescue package, ignoring urgent pleas from President Bush and bipartisan congressional leaders to quickly bail out the staggering financial industry.

Stocks plummeted on Wall Street even before the 228-205 vote to reject the bill was announced on the House floor.

When the critical vote was tallied, too few members of the House were willing to support the unpopular measure with elections just five weeks away. Ample no votes came from both the Democratic and Republican sides of the aisle.

Bush and a host of leading congressional figures had implored the lawmakers to pass the legislation despite howls of protest from their constituents back home.

The vote had been preceded by unusually aggressive White House lobbying, and spokesman Tony Fratto said that Bush had used a “call list” of people he wanted to persuade to vote yes as late as just a short time before the vote.

Lawmakers shouted news of the plummeting Dow Jones average as lawmakers crowded on the House floor during the drawn-out and tense call of the roll, which dragged on for roughly 40 minutes as leaders on both sides scrambled to corral enough of their rank-and-file members to support the deeply unpopular measure.

From the New York Times and news on the Dow freefalling over 400 points on the news.

Update — Dow is down almost 700 points.

I’m glad the vote failed. And no, I don’t think it’s a case of cutting off one’s nose to spite the face. I think it’s a case of a failed administration making one more attempt at a naked and craven power-grab. Get Paulson out of the picture, bring in some adult nonpartisan brains and knock-out a real solution, not some BS version of, “be very afraid and give me unlimited power.”

I think the US public finally woke up, and maybe the GOP did too after the Bush 43 effort at corporate socialism and their presidential standard bearer choosing an unqualified religious nutjob as his running mate.

Go below the fold for additional updates as the situation warrants.

Newt Gingrich pans the bailout

Newt Gingrich puts in his two cents on the proposed financial sector bailout offered up by the Bush 43 administration. His voice joins those of other true conservatives who are concerned about scope and sheer breathlessness of this stupid non-solution to a very real problem.

From the WSJ’s Political Perceptions link:

For those watching the Washington tea leaves, one sure sign that Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson faces problems selling his Wall Street bailout plan came Sunday, when Newt Gingrich posted his views online.

The former House speaker’s posting, on National Review Online, was a clarion call to fellow conservatives to slow down the rush to pass the plan and to start raising serious questions about it. “Congress was designed by the Founding Fathers to move slowly, precisely to avoid the sudden panic of a one-week solution that becomes a 20-year mess,” Mr. Gingrich wrote.

In an interview Monday, Mr. Gingrich was even more pointed. He predicted “a populist reaction of the first order” against the Wall Street rescue and called on the president to dump his economics team and “try again.” For good measure, Mr. Gingrich’s think tank plans to release poll findings Tuesday showing public skepticism about bailing out financial firms.

As that suggests, the one thing that’s become clear in the last day or so is that the path toward congressional approval of the $700 billion financial-sector rescue plan won’t be nearly as smooth and clear as many thought when the idea emerged late last week. When the Democratic speaker of the House and the Republican presidential nominee both demand similar changes, that’s a sure sign trouble is brewing.

Bush 43’s GOP has gone pinko

I’ve used the term “corporate socialism” to deride the outrageous $700B bailout proposed by Bush 43. Just one more piece of evidence our country has not been led by a conservative administration over the last seven-plus years.

Looks like George Will agrees with me.

From the link:

The political left always aims to expand the permeation of economic life by politics. Today, the efficient means to that end isgovernment control of capital. So, is not McCain’s party now conducting the most leftist administration in American history? The New Deal never acted so precipitously on such a scale. Treasury Secretary Paulson, asked about conservative complaints that his rescue program amounts to socialism, said, essentially: This is not socialism, this is necessary. That non sequitur might be politically necessary, but remember that government control of capital is government control of capitalism. Does McCain have qualms about this, or only quarrels?

Think about that for a second — George Will is calling Bush 43 more liberal than FDR.