There’s something terribly ironic, or maybe tragically ironic, about the Congressional action on the Fed bailout plan in Congress today.

Speaker Pelosi says she won’t bring it to a vote in the House without at least 100 Republicans assured to vote for the plan, even though she could bring it to the floor and overwhelmingly pass it on a party line vote. Back in 2005 when Republicans controlled Congress it was Senate leaders who refused to bring H.R. 1461, which would have reformed Fannie/Freddie, to the Senate after having passed it out of the Republican controlled banking committee. Their reason for not bringing this reform bill to the floor? Democrat opposition even though Republicans could have passed this on a party line vote.

Politicians like to talk about bi-partisanship when it is either necessary for passage or necessary for covering their asses. There’s always a political angle involved, that’s why they call it politics I guess.