Haters All Around

It's either a sign of the apocalypse or a sign of a monumentally bad piece of legislation when the wacko Left and the uber-Right team up to oppose a bill. That's what we see beginning to happen on this $700+ billion bailout. From Right Truth:

Newt Gingrich doesn't mince words in the Wall Street Journal article on the $700 billion bailout. There's a lesson in Gingrich's statements for Sen. John McCain and I hope McCain is listening:

“Only in this city and on Wall Street does this bailout have any hope, and they may be able to ram it through, but it’s very clear to the country at large that this is a dead loser and it’s going to be a dead loser in October, and it’s going to be a dead loser on Election Day,” Gingrich said at a briefing to discuss a poll conducted for his outfit, American Solutions for Winning the Future, “And [elected officials] are going to go home and say, ‘I didn’t have any choice’ and people are going to say, ‘Ok, I need to get somebody new who has a choice.’ Because this is really a bad idea.” [snip]

Gingrich said he believes lawmakers who vote for the bailout will face backlash at the ballot box in November and down the road. “I think that this bailout plan is going to break against anybody who votes for it, and I think it’s going to break against them more next time [2010] than this time [2008] and if it passes–because I think it is going to be a nightmare to implement–I think it is going to be filled with corruption, inefficiencies, and bureaucracies,” he said.

He said the interesting break to watch will be whether or not Republican presidential candidate John McCain votes for the bill. “And either McCain will reluctantly go along, and I think [Barack] Obama is clearly going to go along, or you’re going to see McCain decide much the way he did with picking [Alaska Gov. Sarah] Palin that in fact he’s a genuine maverick and he genuinely defends the taxpayer and this is a terrible bill,” he said.

“If the latter happens, I think you will see, overnight, the emergence of a McCain-reform wing of the Republican Party and you’ll see House and Senate members siding with McCain by overwhelming margins. And then you’ll be in a very different political environment. I mean, all of a sudden you’ll have Bush-Obama ads on the one side, and taking on the ‘Bush-Obama establishment’ on the other side and that will be, frankly, one of the more amazing elections in our history.” (read it all)

Mark it on your calendar, Michelle Malkin and Daily Kos actually agree with Newt Gingrich that this $700 billion bailout is a bad idea, that politicians and Americans will regret the day it passes. McCain needs to step up rather than go along.

Malkin:

Both parties in Washington are about to screw us over on an unprecedented scale. They are threatening us with fiscal apocalypse if we don’t fork over $700 billion to Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and allow him to dole it out to whomever he chooses in whatever amount he chooses — without public input or recourse. They are rushing like mad to cram this Mother of All Bailouts down our throats in the next 72-96 hours. And right there in the text of the proposal is this naked power grab: “Decisions by the Secretary pursuant to the authority of this Act are non-reviewable and committed to agency discretion, and may not be reviewed by any court of law or any administrative agency.”

[history of Paulson's record, statements, etc. here]

And now, Washington is on the verge of handing this man unchecked power to grab $700 billion-plus in taxpayer money to stabilize a market he said was “healthy” in order to fix a crisis he said had been “contained” more than a year ago?

Daily Kos:

In their own words, this isn't about bailing out troubled firms. It's about gifting "very successful banks and investment houses that have done very well."

This ridiculous bailout plan needs to be immediately snuffed out. Anyone who votes for this thing won't face just trouble this November, but in 2010 when primary season comes around. You want a bipartisan popular revolt on both sides of the ideological divide? This will do the trick.

ABC:

Speaking to NPR today Newt Gingrich lashed out against the proposed bail out of Wall Street. Here is an excerpt of what he said:

"I think you have a Goldman Sachs chief of staff to the President and the Goldman Sachs secretary of the Treasury. And they convinced the President that the American people ought to send $700 billion to Wall Street, which I think is a very, very bad idea and I would argue is a very un-Republican idea. I don’t understand what they think they're doing."

McCain needs to step up rather than go along. Haste makes waste.

If you haven't called your Senators and Representative yet, DO IT! If you have called them already, CALL 'EM AGAIN! The opposition to this bill is mounting from all sides, but a decision is going to be made within the next couple days, so don't wait around to make your voice heard.

Don't know what to say? Here are some suggestions:
- this kind of bailout for bad business decisions is why this spend-happy Congress has a single-digit approval rating...!
- during this time of economic uncertainty, the last thing we need is a $700 billion bailout of people who made bad decisions...!
- it is the height of foolishness to give any one man (no matter how competent he may be) a blank check for $700 billion with no oversight from anyone, especially when he's said he'll likely spend far more than that...!
- I'm watching your vote on this bill, and will hold you accountable for your vote at your next election...!

It really is easy and will only take a moment, but it could make a significant impact to our nation's economic health. Make the calls.

There's my two cents.