So what is going on with the Republicans these days? Do we smell mutiny?

[Rosa Luxemburg]

Today the Republican party was at its worst. They couldn't even muster up any consensus regarding 'the bill.' They seem to be playing tug of war or something? The voters are getting more and more angry. Countries around the world are becoming bankrupt. McCain blaming Obama won't wash.

Now is the time for Obama to take the reins, attack ferociously and finish them off.

[BuyingThyme]

1. Where's all the "Party divided" talk we would have heard

had it been the Dems?

[oldtime dfl_er]

2. They have no leadership

they're like a rudderless ship.

[Raschel]

14. We have no leadership either right now

our President goes on TV at five in the morning to talk to the country during a crisis? What the heck.

[kath]

15. I lilke your "Free Sarah" sticker.

have you seen the "Free Levi" website? It's a hoot.
http://freelevi.org/Real_Time_with_Bill_Maher.html

Bill even had a "Free Levi" t-shirt: http://meaningfuldistractions.wordpress.com/2008/09/20/free-levi/

[Barack_America]

3. What's a "Republican"?

Is that some historical political party like the Whigs?

I'll have to go look them up on Wikipedia. What did they stand for?

[Rosa Luxemburg]

6. they did and still do stand for Greedy Old Party

[aaaaaa5a]

4. they do have a lot of infighting...

remember McCain wasn't the favorite of the base. And despite all the talk of the Clinton/Obama drama, it was Ron Paul who had his OWN CONVENTION during the GOP get together in MN. And now today, clearly there were GOP house members who could care less about Republican leadership.



Not even their God, Dick Cheney, has any sway with them.

[BlueIdaho]

5. Dunno - but one look around this place tells me

we are about to eat our own young. What a difference a couple of days make. Two days ago we were focused on a common enemy, now we are screaming at each other and calling each other names. From what I see here the republicans can all take a couple of days off - we are busy defeating ourselves.

[Rosa Luxemburg]

7. we are a happy family and we are going to win the elections

we will even beat the machines

[kurt_cagle]

11. Bipartisan Wedge Issue

This threw off the rhythm on both sides of the aisle, but we'll get over it.

The one mistake that the Dems made was to use the Paulson plan as a template - the final plan differed considerably in structure, but kept him in as a player, but it was also the kind of bill to attract every kind of remora, as well as bring opposition from pretty much all over the political spectrum.

The Republicans aren't going to accept any plan that makes the Dems look like heroes, which means that any Dem plan with teeth in it is going to be DOA.

[Venceremos]

8. Dunno either

but with only 60% of Dems in the House voting for that nasty bill, I sense that people in general are coming together to revolt against all the garbage and corruption.

[kurt_cagle]

9. Double cross

Pelosi was about to hold the vote when an aid told her that the Republican leaders had told their members - vote your conscience (i.e., we're not going to fall on the sword for this). When Pelosi heard this, she realized that the Republicans were setting up to double cross her and make this look like a Democrat bill rather than a bipartisan one. Given that, she informed her caucus that they too would be allowed to vote their conscience.

Bottom line, the Republicans reneged, and Pelosi did the only prudent thing she could politically - she killed an unpopular bill, but made sure that votes were recorded so that the Republican perfidy could be shown. That was the reason that they were practically at one another's throats afterwards.

My own take - its over. The Republicans choose to play dirty politics and got burned, and they're not going to come back to the table now. There'll be a few attempts at an alternative bill, but at this point, there'll be nothing that they can agree upon and all of them want to go home to campaign. I think that there are perhaps feasible plans still out there, but none of them are great, and most are bandaids.

This thing won't get resolved until either Obama or McCain is in the White House, and by then, things should be getting fairly nasty.

[rufus dog]

13. where did you hear this?

[Marsala]

10. Don't interfere when your opponent is destroying himself

All Obama should do is stand aside and look presidential. Since his rivals are Bush and McSame, that's not a difficult thing to do.

[Rosa Luxemburg]

12. he needs to hammer the stake in

[AkFemDem]

16. Um, 96 democrats couldn;t be mustered either...

I'm just sayin....

[justiceischeap]

17. Fits into my theory that the repugs are throwing McPalin under the bus

They convince him to choose this unqualified, intelligence challenged candidate so they didn't "waste" a valid candidate for 2012. If you look at all the evidence, it seems at every corner someone seems to be throwing McPalin under the bus; from the Repug party itself to his campaign workers (at all levels).