Let Me One-Up David Brooks

David Brooks is pissed - and rightly so - by the failure of the "bailout" ... proving once again that he's a rare conservative (one with sensible views who lives in reality). Read it. But I don't write for the Times - and am not a Republican - so here's my take:

It's no wonder that the only politicians with a worse approval rating than Bush is the entire Congress. I've been no big fan of Pelosi and Reid, but they actually did what Congress is supposed to do - they took a bad bill and made it better. They insisted on bipartisanship and crafted a bill that, through compromise, addressed the centrists while leaving the left-right fringe out. Whenever you have Judd Gregg and Barney Frank agreeing on something you've got to take notice - the mortal enemies that ended up agreeing on the framework was (as it ended up) too good to be true. And yes - the Dems didn't whip their caucus perfectly, but they brought as many votes as they promised to bring. It really was the GOP that killed this. First, leadership was abysmal. Leave alone McCain's feigned heroism - Boehner's cajones were MIA. He wouldn't commit to anything publicly, but sent is surrogates (Blunt, Putnam, Spencer Baucus, etc.) to do the negotiating under the aegis of leadership - and they came through. Then, Boehner didn't do any heavy lifting (Blunt especially, as whip) to get his rank and file behind him. And the Mike Pence ideologues wrecked it. Mind you, his colleagues in the Republican Conference don't live in reality - their supply-side ideology leads them to run the economy off a cliff ... and then their supply-side ideology forbids them from doing anything about it! Congressman are elected to make decision - and actually learn about policy, we're a representative democracy - it's paternalistic - you don't rely on what "joe-six pack" has to say on Hannity when you cast a decisive vote like this. Nevermind we're 35 days from an election - its a severe cop-out - and no "profile in courage" to rely on novice opinion polls instead of learning and making an informed vote on this. And to top it off - it's not like they blame it on policy - or even offered their own alternative! In the end they thought Pelosi was too "mean" to them! The GOP at least know politics - which conforting in a way since they don't know anything about governing.

This is what Pelosi needs to do: The rules are such that, in the House, you can ram anything down the minority's throat- the majority determines the rules on how the bill is even voted on. It's time for the Dems to step up and show some leadership. They should go back to the board, draw up the best - most progressive - bill possible and ram it down Mike Pence's throat. If it works, you take credit. If it bombs, you take responsibility. Thats what we elect politicians to do. And I'm sick of the games.