Bailout "Debate"

Sent to you by Vachak via Google Reader: 

via Daily Kos by Kagro X on 9/29/08

 

One bunch of guys is getting up and saying, "we hafta." Another bunch of guys is getting up and saying, "nuh-uh."

That will go on for three hours, ending at about 1 p.m. EDT, and then everybody will do what they were going to do last night, the "debate" notwithstanding.

But that's the way it is with every vote.

How convoluted will the battle lines be on this bill? They won't just cut across party lines, they'll cut across the internal moral and political compasses of each individual Member. Check this out:

Maxine Waters (D-CA):

Bailout for Wall Street? I don't think so. I could care less about Wall Street and the high-priced schemers, their tricky products, hedge funds, short selling and insider trading. I care about Main Street. And Martin Luther King, Jr. Drive. I'm voting yes on this bill.

Paul Ryan (R-WI):

Madam Speaker, this bill offends my principles. But I'm going to vote for this bill, in order to preserve my principles.

Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) now giving the longest one minute speech ever. I'm pretty sure this ends in support for a bill she doesn't love, but we haven't gotten there yet. But she does give the first hint at the possibility of more Congressional activity on economic matters, notwithstanding the authorization for the House to adjourn after today until next January. The adjournment is, she points out, subject to the call of the chair, meaning she could reconvene the House if there's something they think they want to work on.

Roy Blunt (R-MO):

We believe that all of the transparency you could possibly hope to have in a government program is here. All of the oversight is here. In fact, if anything, we may have overdone the oversight.

I encourage my colleagues, too, that this is no time to try to seek partisan advantage. This is the time to try to seek a bipartisan solution.

We'll see about how well that works out, Roy.

I have to double back to check on the few speakers I missed early in the debate, but I'm caught up now, and here's a running tally of who's where so far:

Team We Hafta
Barney Frank (D-MA)
Gary Miller (R-CA)
Adam Putnam (R-FL)
Jim Moran (D-VA)
Ike Skelton (D-MO)
Jim Costa (D-CA)
Dan Lungren (R-CA)
Carolyn Maloney (D-NY)
Spencer Bachus (R-AL)
Mel Watt (D-NC)
Jim Marshall (D-GA)
Charlie Rangel (D-NY)
Tom Davis (R-VA)
Paul Kanjorski (D-PA)
Chris Shays (R-CT)
Carolyn McCarthy (D-NY)
Chaka Fattah (D-PA)
John Dingell (D-MI)
Maxine Waters (D-CA)
John Tanner (D-TN)
Jim Oberstar (D-MN)
Paul Ryan (R-WI)
Bill Foster (D-IL)
John Spratt (D-SC)
John Campbell (R-CA)
Melissa Bean (D-IL)
Nancy Pelosi (D-CA)
Rahm Emanuel (D-IL)
Bob Inglis (R-SC)
Gregory Meeks (D-NY)
Henry Waxman (D-CA)
Joseph Crowley (D-NY)
Keith Ellison (D-MN)
Rosa DeLauro (D-CT)
Rep. Roy Blunt (R-MO)
Ed Markey (D-MA)
George Miller (D-CA)
John Boehner (R-OH)
Steny Hoyer (D-MD)

Team Nuh-Uh
Lynn Woolsey (D-CA)
Thaddeus McCotter (R-MI)
Jeb Hensarling (R-TX)
John Culberson (R-TX)
Lloyd Doggett (D-TX)
Mike Pence (R-IN)
Paul Broun (R-GA)
Brad Sherman (D-CA)
J. Gresham Barrett (R-SC)
Ron Paul (R-TX)
Virgil Goode (R-VA)
Gresham Barrett (R-SC)
Lynn Westmoreland (R-GA)
Barbara Lee (D-CA)
Ted Poe (R-TX)
Judy Biggert (R-IL)
Peter DeFazio (D-OR)
Darrell Issa (R-CA)
Scott Garrett (R-NJ)
Jeff Miller (R-FL)
Jeff Flake (R-AZ)
Earl Blumenauer (D-OR)
Louie Gohmert (R-TX)
Carolyn Kilpatrick (D-MI)
Shiela Jackson Lee (D-TX) -- I think. I couldn't tell from that speech.
Jeff Fortenberry (R-NE)
Todd Akin (R-MO)
Ginny Brown-Waite (R-FL)
Marcy Kaptur (D-OH)
Steven LaTourette (R-OH)
Michelle Bachmann (R-MN)
Dennis Kucinich (D-OH)
Todd Tiahrt (R-KS)
Timothy Murphy (R-PA)
John Shadegg (R-AZ)
Marilyn Musgrave (R-CO)

Team I Dunno
Loretta Sanchez (D-CA) -- Sanchez rises to submit a written statement for the record, but doesn't say what's in it or how she'll vote.

Twenty-eight Democrats come out to speak in support of the bill, 10 against. Eleven Republicans in favor, 26 against. Now, there's no reason to believe that that's in any particular way representative of those who didn't speak -- this is a self-selecting group who came to the floor. But if those numbers hold up across the parties, it's looking mighty tight.

That represents just under 74% of Dems who have come to the floor speaking in support. 74% of the 235 Dems in the House would be 173 votes. Eleven of 37 Republicans = just under 30% of Republicans. That'd be 59 Republican votes, for a total of 232 votes, enough for passage, with room to spare.

We'll see what the wallflowers have to say when it's time to cast those votes. Which is... right now.