Troubling

Of all of the scary aspects of this financial mess, somehow I find this to be the most alarming thing I've come across:

Feeling betrayed after sticking their necks out for Bush - a Republican who badly wants a rescue plan passed - angry Democrats huddled in the Roosevelt Room after the White House meeting with Bush, McCain and Democratic nominee Barack Obama.

In a bizarre scene, Paulson reportedly followed them in, kneeled down as if to genuflect and begged: "Please don't blow this up."

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) jokingly shot back, "I didn't know you were Catholic," according to Politico.com.

Things got serious again when Rep. Barney Frank, a Democrat who has been leading negotiations on the rescue, told Paulson, "Don't say that after all we've been through!"

Pelosi chimed in, "We're not the ones trying to blow this up - it's the House Republicans," ABC reported.

Paulson replied, "I know, I know."

The distinguished Paulson actually knelt in front of Pelosi. Just how incredibly fucked does he believe we are for him to have done that?

BTW, WaMu failed last night while Republicans were busy trying to make the bailout feel more more Repubicany by stuffing in some corporate tax breaks. Psssst, Republicans: Nothing you do to this bill is going to make anyone like it. You could load it up with school vouchers and abstinence only education and your base is still not going to think it's a good idea. Quit stalling and just do what needs to be done. Corporate tax breaks are not going to help the situation anyway and, in fact, it's pissing me off even more than I already was since I know many of us will be looking at a tax increase down the road... you can't add $700B on top of a $3T debt and expect not to pay for it.

From Wall Street to Pennsylvania Avenue... bastards, all.