Posted by
Always To The Right on Friday, September 26, 2008 10:19:58 AM
Speaker Nancy Pelosi has the plenary power to bring a bill to the
floor of the House, and no parliamentary procedure can help a minority
to block a majority will to pass it. That’s one fact that has to be
remembered while Pelosi and Barney Frank blame the House GOP over the collapse of the bailout bill:
“I didn’t know I was going to be the referee for an
internal G.O.P. ideological civil war,” Mr. Frank said, according to
The A.P.Thursday, in the Roosevelt Room after the session, the Treasury
secretary, Henry M. Paulson Jr., literally bent down on one knee as he
pleaded with Nancy Pelosi, the House Speaker, not to “blow it up” by
withdrawing her party’s support for the package over what Ms. Pelosi
derided as a Republican betrayal.
“I didn’t know you were Catholic,” Ms. Pelosi said, a wry reference
to Mr. Paulson’s kneeling, according to someone who observed the
exchange. She went on: “It’s not me blowing this up, it’s the
Republicans.”
Mr. Paulson sighed. “I know. I know.”
If Pelosi has her entire caucus in line to support the Paulson plan,
then she has the vote to pass it. Some estimates have as many as 50
Republicans ready to support the plan in defiance of Boehner. If
that’s true, Pelosi could lose all of her Blue-Dog Democrats and still pass the bill.
So why not just call a vote? Pelosi doesn’t want to get married to
George Bush, that’s why. She wants to spread the political risk and
get consensus on a bailout plan so that the responsibility for any
failure doesn’t rest solely on her shoulders, at least in the House.
Both Pelosi and Harry Reid wanted John McCain to deliver both GOP
caucuses to cover their own butts on the bailout bill, and McCain — at
least thus far — hasn’t convinced Boehner to do so.