What is to blame for not  getting the rescue plan through? Republican ideals or Democratic politicizing?

Representative Adam Putnam of Florida, the No. 3 House Republican, said Pelosi’s “speech cost us votes” because it set a “partisan tone,” a reference to her comment before the vote blaming Bush administration policies for the crisis.

Democrats voted 140 to 95 in favor of the legislation, while just 65 Republicans backed the bill and 133 opposed it. Bloomberg.com

If so, what did that look like?

“Bush’s policies got us into this mess.”

Joe Blow Republican replies, “That’s a personal and party insult! I’m voting ‘no’!”

I’m not sure whether the bailout is a great idea, but I’m a little nervous about the alternative. On the other hand, I’ve a feeling that this is only a plan to get us through November 2008. With banks failing throughout Europe, this crisis is taking on a semi-global dimension, so I’m not sure buying bad debt in America will do much good at all in a globalized economy.

Besides, I’m not sure that $700 billion is really a significantly large number:

The Dow Jones-Wilshire 5000 folks say the stock market lost $1.2 trillion in value today. Year-to-date, the figure is $4.2 trillion. […]

If the stock market closes tomorrow unchanged, this will be the third-worst month for the S.&P. 500 since World War II. The two months that were worst marked panicky lows, so perhaps there is hope. (NYT)

Bets for tomorrow? I’m thinking we’ll see another significant drop. Maybe the index will drop a cool 1k in a day?