Today’s Funny: House Republicans Voted No Because Their Feelings Were Hurt

It doesn’t matter to me whether you supported the 700 billion bailout bill or not.  That is a discussion for another post.  But the funniest thing about today’s proceedings (if there was anything funny about a day that saw the stock market drop over 700 points – whoops, my retirement funds just took another major hit) was that Republican House Leaders John Boehner and Roy Blunt proclaimed they would have had about 12 more votes if House Speaker Nancy Pelosi had not given such a critical speech about the Bush administration from the floor before the vote was taken.  (You can read her speech here or watch it here).

I feel so bad for those Republicans whose feelings were hurt by Nancy Pelosi.  How dare she, as a Democrat, lay much of the blame for the current crisis at the feet of George W.  Shame on her!  She is just a big meany!  A veritable Wicked Witch of the West!  Those poor wittle old Republicans.  God bless their pea-pickin’ hearts.  Who knew that they were soooo sensitive?

I think the next funniest thing that was said today came from Barney Frank when he was told about the Republican contention that Pelosi’s statement had scuttled the bill.  The Democratic head of the Banking Committee retorted, "Think of this: Somebody hurt my feelings so I am going to punish the country,"  Frank then offered to visit each of the 12 "deeply offended Republicans who put feeling over country" and speak to them "uncharacteristically nicely," in the hopes that their spirits improve and they change their vote. 

This was basically a Republican bill, mind you, pushed by a Republican President and his appointee to the Federal Reserve Board and his (one would assume, Republican) Secretary of the Treasury.  It’s just too bad that John McCain was out campaigning today and did not or could not rush back to Washington to make sure everything turned out okay. 

As one commenter on another blog said (and I couldn’t agree more):

"We had the support needed to pass this bill, but due to the partisan speech of Nancy Pelosi just hours before the bill, support was lost, and it failed."

I don’t know who proposed that defense, but they should be fired before sunset. They essentially just said that they agreed with the necessity and current form of the legislation, but because their personal feelings were hurt right before the vote, they chose to jeopardize what they legally thought was the best thing to do for the country, to protect their pride.

This is not only a fundamental tactical flaw if it is just a "made up" excuse, but let us say the American people believe what they said to be true, and that they really did change their pledged vote because of her speech. How pathetic is that? Not only as a matter of putting ‘feelings’ over crisis response for your country, but equally pathetic to think that it would be perceived as an acceptable justification. God save us from ourselves, because we are apparently unable, or unwilling, to do it.

Can this election year get any more ridiculous?  I am willing to bet it can and will.