By Steven T. Jones
I’m not putting too much stock in Republicans blaming the failure of the bailout bill on Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi’s floor speech today. “Somebody hurt my feelings; I’m going to punish the country,” was how Rep. Barney Frank correctly sized up that excuse.
But watch the speech and you’ll see how Pelosi blew an opportunity to help pass a bill she supports (although it was hard to tell from her speech that she supports it). Between her ill-timed partisan broadside and her repeated emphasis on the “Seven…hundred…billion…dollar” bailout package (even though, as the Post notes, the government is likely to recoup much of that outlay), this wasn’t a speech that was going to win anybody over.
Bottom line: there are many different ways to deal with this financial crisis, but if you’ve concluded that this bill is the way to go, Madame Speaker, it’s your job to sell it. Otherwise, we’re all in for a helluva ride.