Unnecessary Partisanship

Our leaders are expected to leave partisanship at the door, and come to the table to solve our problems. Senator Obama and his allies in Congress infused an unnecessary partisanship into the process. Now is not the time to fix the blame; it's time to fix the problem. I would hope that all our leaders, all of them, can put aside their short-term political goals and do what's in the best interests of the American people.

- John McCain, in a Sept. 29 statement on the failure of the $700 billion bailout bill

I don't think that even George W. Bush has contradicted himself so thoroughly in such a short space. Unbelievable.

As for the bill's defeat, it clearly makes no sense to blame it on the Democrats:

Democrats
Yea: 140 Nay: 95
Republicans
Yea: 65 Nay: 133 Abstention: 1

If it is true that twelve or so Republicans voted against the bill as they were offended by "partisanship," then they have done a selfish and worse than silly thing. The bill may not have been perfect, but certainly it should not have been voted against on shallow grounds, seeing as its failure to pass has predictably caused the Dow Jones to plummet a record sum (over 700 points), followed by stock markets around the world (over 12% in Ireland, I heard).

I know little about economics, but it appears to me that the bill, permitting oversight and providing the money in increments and giving the taxpayers stock in the bailed-out companies as it did, was good enough. Psychologically, it would have been a quick and effective measure to restore confidence. Instead the stocks are left to languish and dwindle while the members of Congress go off on holiday until Wednesday. Utterly nonsensical.