The "Rich People's Election Ransom Request Act" aka "The Bail Out", has been rejected [1].
Even though the measure was debated by Democrats and Republicans alike, there just weren't enough votes for the proposal but plenty of dislike for the proposal,
What was supposed to be a 15-minute vote stretched past the half-hour mark as leadership scrambled for support.
Investors who had been counting on the rescue plan sent the Dow Jones industrial average down as much as 700 points while watching the measure come up short of the necessary support, before rebounding slightly. The key stock reading was down more than 500 points.
The measure needs 218 votes for passage, but it came up 13 votes short of that target, as the final vote was 228 to 205 against. About 60% of Democrats voted for the measure, but less than a third of Republicans backed it.
President Bush is "very disappointed" by the House vote, his spokesman Tony Fratto said.
Kucinich was, once again, right [2].
Kucinich called for more hearings on the bailout despite Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke speaking about the proposal before lawmakers last week.
“None of this has been subject to a critical analysis. We haven’t had access to the books to the people who are claiming they are going broke,” said Kucinich. He also drew the parallel between the administration’s intense urgency on the Wall Street relief package and its drive towards the conflict in Iraq.
“They rushed this Congress into the Iraq resolution and look what happened. Catastrophe for this nation as well as for the people of Iraq,” said Kucinich.
House Republicans have been credited with slowing the bailout that led to the contentious White House summit involving both presidential candidates, Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Barack Obama (D-Ill.), on Thursday.
Kucinich alluded to his colleagues across the aisle that have also become a source of opposition to the bill.
“There is an attempt to create a fake partisan dichotomy here. This is not about Democrat versus Republican. This is about Main Street or Wall Street,” said Kucinich.
The question is, what's going to happen next? Has the coup been averted?
Ed Morrissey, who usually aggravates me with his republican talking points, has this to say over at Hot Air [3] :
What does this mean? The Senate can always initiate their own version of the plan and re-send it to the House, but that will take some doing. Can Republicans change their votes after taking this kind of stand?
If it stands, it will be a repudiation of the leadership in both House caucuses and the Bush administration. Pelosi couldn’t hold her caucus together, and Boehner, Cantor, Blunt, and Putnam will find themselves in the minority of theirs.
BTW : Ed owns up to the fact that McCain's "help" amounted to nothing.
As Kucinich said, don't let yourself get fooled. This is not about political parties. This is an all out class war.
So the question is, on whose side is our candidate? It's time for Obama to step up to the plate and show his true support to the middle class. Make that "Zero [4]" really amount to something.
[5] | 
[6] | 
[7] | 
[8] | 
[9] | 
[10]