PDA

View Full Version : Last Call...



Nbadan
09-30-2008, 12:53 AM
...Is this nightmare really over?

http://d.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/p/ap/20080929/capt.fda95000201f42d59ab654bfe392c2a3.bush_financi al_meltdown_us_ukraine_dcpm103.jpg

Vote Underscores Bush's Loss of Influence
President Unable To Persuade Many In His Own Party

By Dan Eggen and Michael Abramowitz
Washington Post Staff Writers
Tuesday, September 30, 2008; Page A11


President Bush was confident the House would approve the $700 billion plan when he walked to the microphones yesterday morning. (By Bill O'leary -- The Washington Post)

At 7:34 a.m. yesterday, President Bush strode onto the south driveway of the White House and urged Congress to approve his $700 billion Wall Street rescue package. "With the improvements made to this bill, I'm confident that members of both parties will support it," he predicted.

Less than seven hours later, the plan had gone down to a stinging defeat in the House, in large part the result of opposition from more than 100 members of Bush's Republican Party.

The vote marked the biggest legislative defeat of Bush's tenure and underscored the vanishing influence of a president who could once bend a pliant Congress to his will on wars, taxes, surveillance and a host of other high-profile initiatives.

The defeat also brought into focus some of the key characteristics of Bush's troubled second term, including his weakened hold on his party, his tendency to delegate major responsibilities to aides and his continued reliance on alarmist rhetoric in an effort to get his way. Bush left much of the sales job for the rescue plan to Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr., and his last-minute warnings that "our entire economy is in danger" appeared to have little impact on the debate.

"I was disappointed in the vote with the United States Congress on the economic rescue plan," Bush said after yesterday's vote, during a White House appearance with the president of Ukraine. "We put forth a plan that was big because we got a big problem."

Washington Post (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/29/AR2008092903360.html?hpid=topnews)

With a little over 90 days to go, let's hope Dubya rides quietly in the Paraguayian nightfall...

SnakeBoy
09-30-2008, 01:13 AM
I'm just amazed that the media is so stupid that they think the repubs suddenly killed the bill. House republicans were saying last night they were only going to deliver around 60 votes. In fact I posted it last night.

So what really happened seems obvious to me. Pelosi thought she had enough democrats on board to pass it with around 60 republicans. Otherwise she wouldn't have brought it to vote and she wouldn't have felt bold enough to give a speech ripping the republicans before calling it to a vote.