Jumping on the Bailout Bandwagon

Earlier today, White House Deputy Press Secretary Tony Fratto made what is, to me, an astonishing admission: The administration has been working on this bailout plan for months. This is not something they've rushed to put together to avoid imminent catastrophe. This plan, with its Trojan horses preventing oversight, its lack of consequences for reckless financiers, and who knows what poison pills, has been in development for quite some time.

The whole justification for it is that we've got an economic crisis that needs to be addressed now, so we don't have time to vet it carefully (which vice presidential candidate does that remind you of?). Kos and Chris Bowers each argue that there is no financial crisis and that the Bushies just scheduled the controversial legislation at an opportune moment that was convenient to themselves. Unfortunately, once we decide that good faith is not a factor in negotiating with the Republicans, we can't much trust anything they say or do. Good luck in trying to figure out which way is up in this situation.