Nancy Pelosi's Speech tanks the Bill

They thought they had the votes to pass the bill. Then Speaker Pelosi spoke:

Nancy Pelosi, making one final pitch for GOP buy-in to the bailout, addressed the chamber, saying, "We have to have a bipartisan vote on this -- that is the only thing that will send a message of confidence to the markets." Pelosi's speech, however, was anything but bipartisan, laying the fiscal crisis on the door of the White House, blasting Bush for opposing a second stimulus package.

Then they had the vote. 94 Democrats voted against the bill, only 66 Republicans voted for the bill.

Some members of the House GOP are blaming Speaker Pelosi's hard-edged partisan speech for the loss. "Progress had been marked by magnanimity with Frank and Hoyer [speeches] ... Hers had a partisan tone," said Rep. Adam Putnam.

Source: http://www.politico.com/blogs/thecrypt/


A result of this is a stock market that is reeling. Those Republicans who think the political vote is ‘no’ since the bill is not popular are foolish. Well, guess what, medicine never is, but if you are hired to be a doctor and you let the patient die instead of giving him medicine, you’d be fired and worse. That is what the Democrats will tag on the Republicans. If the economic crisis worsens or dominates the news until the election, it will be a GOP wipeout that will make 2006 look like a picnic. It’s the ultimate folly and the Democrats and MSM will make today’s GOP out to be Hoover II whether fair or not. BTW, locally, Smith (TX) voted Aye and McCaul voted No. Doggett voted No. The only one looking out for our 401(k) accounts was Smith.

UPDATE: House Republican leaders and many members made clear that, however shockingly partisan Speaker Pelosi's speech was, it did not induce vote changes. There is however a clear understory that Pelosi did not push for Democrat votes. She wanted the Republicans to walk the plank on this. Instapundit notes:

PELOSI gave key Democrats a pass on the bailout vote.

UPDATE: Obama Campaign co-chair Jesse Jackson, Jr. voted against the bill. (Via NewsAlert).

So it is now clear that Speaker Pelosi put politics first; since it was unpopular, she was demanding, hectoring actually, the Republicans to vote for it, while not getting her own party members to do so. While she calls it a serious crisis, she acted in a way that indicated it wasn't really to her, since was willing to let the bill die rather than round up a few more Democrat colleagues. The worst Speaker ever hits a new low of partisan duplicity.