Congress Did the Right Thing Today

This was a big day for our country! When my wife told me the result
of the vote on the phone, I said, "There's hope for the republic
yet." The wise men in Washington thought they had it in the bag, and
democracy won for once. After eight years of watching democracy die,
we had a hopeful sign today.

One of the best parts of the whole scene was Nancy Pelosi's speech
just before the vote. For five days, leader after leader on the Hill,
on campaign, and at the White House said, "We have to set aside our
differences for the sake of the country. Let's put aside the partisan
acrimony of the last years and act in a bipartisan spirit to save the
economy." Then what did Pelosi do? She stuck it in the Republicans'
face just before the vote! She blamed the mess on them and made it
clear the Democrats would ride in to save the day. These are not the
words of someone who believes she might lose the big vote. Not long
after that speech, with the noes stacking up during the roll call,
she and her lieutenants are scurrying around with their cell phones
trying to secure enough votes to pass the bill. What leadership!
Ninety-five Democrats voted with the Republicans to defeat the
legislation. Pelosi didn't even know it ahead of time.

One could say a lot about the vote, the deteriorating economic
situation, and the efforts of government officials to address it.
I'll just comment briefly on a column Steve Pearlstein published in
the Washington Post. I've liked his analysis as we go through these
interesting times. When I saw the title of today's column, They Just
Don't Get It, I thought, "He can't be that condescending. That's not
like him!" Well, he wasn't condescending in tone, but the column did
indeed suggest that if people realized how serious things are, they
would not have told their representatives to vote against the so-
called bailout. Here is the message I wrote to Steve in response to
his article:

Your last sentence is the key to your whole article:

"But it is a measure of how little trust remains in both Washington
and Wall Street that voters are willing to risk a serious hit to
their wealth and income rather than follow their lead."

Voters don't trust Washington and Wall Street because they aren't
worthy of trust. This economic crisis has been developing for a long
time, and we can wait a few more months until we have new leadership.
Never throw good money after bad. The current leadership proved
itself unworthy a long time ago. Voters were right to reject their
leadership now.

My representative, Democrat Stephen Lynch, voted with the opposition
on this one. He stood with only two other members from the
Massachusetts delegation. He may have voted with his seat in mind,
but in fact his seat is secure. His district is solidly Democratic.
He stood on principle, and they are the right principles. Hooray for
courageous congressmen! Through this whole terrible war in Iraq, they
have been spineless wonders. Now at last both Republicans and
Democrats had a chance to repudiate the White House as well as their
own leadership in Congress, and they did it. They picked the right
issue and they did the right thing.