Voting for the "Crap Sandwich"

The deal is done and the GOP leadership is trying to get the rest of the team on board:

In a closed-door session with House Republicans Sunday evening, Minority Leader John A. Boehner called the $700 billion financial rescue deal a “crap sandwich” — then said he plans to vote for it.

House Republicans are the key to the bill’s passage Monday – Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Sunday that it’s a “bipartisan” bill and will need “bipartisanship” to pass – and it now appears that many will cast their votes in favor of it.

But many Republicans still harbor deep misgivings about the legislation, and the outcome remains uncertain. Asked Sunday night where the support stood for the legislation, Boehner told reporters, “We don’t know.”

“We made it pretty clear to our members that we are supporting this bill,” the Ohio Republican said after the Republican Conference meeting. “We also made it clear to these members that as many who could vote for it should vote for it.”

After bashing the bailout plan for more than a week, rank-and-file Republicans are starting to accept what Boehner and others stated early on: The current economic meltdown is a bad situation – and a massive government intervention in the financial markets is regrettable response – but it’s their only option at this late stage in the crisis.

That doesn’t mean they’re happy with the vote they’ll have to take, and Boehner acknowledged members’ displeasure when he spoke to reporters.

“The American people are angry, angry about the situation they find themselves in with very little control over it,” he said. “I can tell you that my colleagues are angry about the situation they find themselves in. Nobody wants to have to support this bill, but it's a bill we've worked on together. It's a bill that we believe will avert the crisis that's out there. We're certainly hopeful it will avert the crisis that's out there."

Rep. Paul Ryan, a staunch conservative from Wisconsin, told his colleagues Sunday that he believes inaction could lead the country into a deep and prolonged recession. Ryan had been leading opposition to the Treasury proposal, searching for a less costly, more free-market alternative, but will now back the proposal when it reaches the House floor.

“This sucks,” Ryan told his colleagues, according to people in the room, before telling Republicans that one of his local banks failed shortly after he withdrew money for his campaign.

Virginia Rep. Eric Cantor, a member of the Republican leadership team in the House, also announced his support for the measure in the closed-door conference meeting, those present said.

Cantor and Ryan were a key constituency for the White House and party leaders as they sought to garner Republican support for the measure.

The free-market capitalist in me wants to stand astride the president's desk and yell "DON'T SIGN IT!!", but as I explained in this earlier post the time for those kind of heroics is over. If the GOP were to block this legislation at this point and a financial disaster ensued, there wouldn't be a Republican in the country who could win election to dogcatcher, let alone Congress.

Once the bill is signed it's time for the Republicans AND the president to stand up and tell the American people exactly how we got to this point. I guarantee you that Dems will be spinning a complete fantasy about the history of this crisis and the media will be reporting Barney Frank, Chris Dodd and Barack Obama as the heroes of the nation. We have to tell the story the way it really happened, and keep telling it until the message gets through.