The October Surprise. In September. A political trap set and ready to be sprung. The Dems walking right into it. Again.
I agree with Josh Marshall
I think Kos, Digby and Kilgore have this about right. The Republican/McCain plan is to get the Democrats to bail out the GOP's Wall Street friends and then run against them for doing it.
Who is in agreement with me in agreeing with not just Kos,
If Democrats want to throw away this election, there's no better way to do it than to join Bush in his "Chicken Little" act, and raid the treasury to bail out those incompetent and greedy Wall Street assholes.
Yet bizarrely, Democrats are rushing headlong into those boondoggle, flailing their arms in blind panic at the behest of the Bush Administration, all for a proposal that will dump a trillion dollar budget deficit on Obama's lap before he's spent a single dime on anything else.
Digby
We will see the rebirth of the phony fiscal conservative image before our very eyes
and Kilgore
The speculative costs of the legislation actually failing are completely intangible and ultimately irrelevant, while the costs it will impose are tangible and controversial from almost every point of view. For McCain and other Republicans, voting "no" on Paulson without accepting the consequences of that vote is the political equivalent of a bottomless crack pipe
who is also in agreement with Ruffini at nextright (even they can see the trap, and they like it)
All the upside comes with voting against it.
A bailout may be inevitable, but so to can be the political benefit for Congressional Republicans
So are we all in agreement that this is a trap? The ayes have it. All the Dems should vote no unless all of the Republicans vote yes. All of them, including McCain. Unanimous or not at all. Or it will be be a Democratic 'big tax and spend' albatross for years to come.
UPDATE 1: And we should agree that Atrios was first to agree:
If the Democrats pass this piece of shit, look for Republican challengers to run against them on it.
UPDATE 2: Judging from the comments, it seems there is majority agreement that something needs to be done to avert disaster, while a minority believes in letting nature take its course and let the system fail. The main disagreement is over what, whose money, how much, where, who to, and when, ranging from throw lots of money at it now today! through to suggesting a moratorium or smaller stopgap loans until the situation can be properly assessed and a more sound policy developed.
The agreement expressed by the left wing bloggers and pundits quoted in this diary, who are pretty much the cornerstones of the Dem internet presence for the last 8 years, is overwhelmingly that the 'throw lots of money now' option is toxic and will be seriously politically damaging to the Democratic party both short (in the next few weeks) and long term (years). The right wing bloggers also agree, and see a political opportunity advantage from it if it passes.