Bailout Law Seen as Politically Risky Measure

Regretfully, even as the Bailout plan is slowly being carried out, the voters are more than ready to punish their elected officials at the polls. Yesterday saw many representatives make the risky vote of their entire political careers. In a meeting between officials, Treasury Secretary Paulson and President Bush; they all knew one thing: the plan had to pass – there was and is no Plan B. Even as President Bush was signing the plan into law last night, there was big news: the sale of Wachovia Bank to Wells Fargo.

"There is no joy," said Rep. Sue Myrick (R-N.C.), a rock-ribbed conservative who switched her "no" vote to a "yes" yesterday, even though a Democratic surge in North Carolina is making her once-easy district look increasingly dicey. "I don't like the bill. I'm not going to defend the bill . . . I had to do the right thing, even though, politically, it might kill me." ~From an Interview by the Washington Post (10/4/08)

Even faced with resistance by voters, it brought out political selflessness and courage, bipartisan cooperation and ultimately a triumph of sorts. Representative Myrick wasn’t the only one who changed their votes, below is a few others from that same Washington Post article:

• But in the end, none of these people proved decisive. Instead, for Myrick, it was the Charlotte banker who told her the night before the vote about how the credit market in North Carolina was heading toward rigor mortis.
• It was the woman in Cleveland, Tenn., infant son in arms, who looked into Tennessee Republican Rep. Zach Wamp's eyes and said, "I appreciate you voting no, but please don't come home and leave things the way they are."
• And it was Drew Greenblatt, president of Marlin Steel Wire Products in Maryland, who walked into Rep. Elijah E. Cummings's office Thursday to tell the Maryland Democrat's staff that his company had just landed a major contract for wire baskets, but when he went to the bank to get cash to meet the demands, he learned his credit line had been frozen. "I decided late last night," Cummings said yesterday, just after he switched his vote. "I prayed on it, because this is a difficult situation. I needed to allow this moment in history to sink in."

Now all we can do is wait and see if the bailout will make any difference or if the economy will continue to spiral further and further into a possible depression.

Source: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/10/03/AR2008100303849.html?hpid=topnews&sub=new&sid=ST2008100303976&s_pos=