What? Me Partisan?

So the salvation of the mortgage industry will have to wait for a few days; I can't believe that should be a cause for panic. Yet the shrillness of the politicians certainly paint it that way.

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi blames Republicans despite the fact that 95 of her own party members voted against the bailout. The Democrats should have carried the day without a single vote from across the aisle; why are Bush policies and supporters to blame for the failure of the legislation? Heck, it would have only taken 12 of those recalcitrant Dems to sway the outcome. What does it mean?

It suggests to me that a significant number of lawmakers are simply questioning a dangerous proposal. Shouldn't it calm the market and the body politic that Congress is actually taking the challenge seriously enough to NOT act rashly? Yet we, before and after hand, get politically tinged snarky remarks from the Speaker.

That's not the way to be bi-partisan, my friends. That's the way to cause dissent.

Perhaps that's what the market is actually responding to: uncertainty about political intent. Bickering, particularly when unwarranted (as bickering usually is) simply annoys and unnerves. Maybe that's our real lesson. If so, look closely at who is teaching it.