bailout could make Democrats in Congress ''rope a dope'' strategy blow up in their faces

I don't really believe it was a strategy in the first place. A sizable number of Dems are as business-owned as the GOP.

But to the extent they have even bothered to explain their acquiescence with nearly everything Bush has proposed, they have fallen back on saying ''You don't get in the way of someone committing suicide.''

So they vote with the GOP and wait for the natural consequences of those policies to convince the public of how disastrous they are.

But suppose the White House makes the stakes insanely high as they have with the bailout, Democrats do their usual shtick of token complaining and grousing, then vote for the bailout--but Republicans DON'T.

Then the mother of all pork and corruption belongs to the Democrats.

And that is exactly what one right wing pundit said:

"God Himself couldn't have given rank-and-file Republicans a better opportunity to create political space between themselves and the Administration. That's why I want to see 40 Republican 'No' votes in the Senate, and 150+ in the House. If a bailout is to pass, let it be with Democratic votes. Let this be the political establishment (Bush Republicans in the White House + Democrats in Congress) saddling the taxpayers with hundreds of billions in debt (more than the Iraq War, conjured up in a single weekend, and enabled by Pelosi, btw), while principled Republicans say 'No' and go to the country with a stinging indictment of the majority in Congress."

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As they did with Social Security, Democrats need to draw a hard line, and stop this.

Passing it will not only screw the country but give the GOP a club to beat the Dems with.