As discussions seem to speed along (Patrioti Act style) regarding the bailout of the rich, greedy and utterly irresponsible con-men of Wall Street, the President is asking Congress for $700 billion to do it with.  Now I'm no economist, nor am I even much of a math whiz, but I smell a rat... a big, fat, corrupt, Republican rat.  After the past 8 years it's an easily recognized smell.  Why the Democrats in Washington don't seem to recognize it horrifies me.

This whole question of bailing out the crooks who have brought our financial system to the point of ruin may be the ultimate and perhaps final test of whether the Democrats who run Congress have any cajones at all. 

Let's review the basic lay of the land in DC: Bush is the worst President in US history on any important measure.  He is personally and morally corrupt and has facilitated corruption throughout the government at every level, his lies make Nixon's pale in comparison, he is a war criminal, he has presided over the destruction of our economic strength, has weakened our military and diplomatic positions in the world, and he has trampled the Constitution over and over again.  His incompetence is truly staggering.  His ability to ruin everything he touches is remarkable.  I wouldn't trust him to successfully borrow a cup of sugar from the neighbors.  Yet, out of shear cowardice and stupidity, the Democrats in Washington have repeatedly gotten in line behind this bozo and supported his proposals and made his malfeasance possible.  They have offered tepid opposition at best and have spent most of the years of Republican misrule cowering in fear of what the mean President might do if they actually did what was right.

Now this clown of a President proposes that he be given the authority to use nearly a trillion dollars of our money to bail out his friends and that we taxpayers get absolutely nothing in return for rescusing their asses.  What a load of crap!  If there's ever been a bigger rat to get a whif of I don't know what it was or where it was!

Democrats in Congress must stand firm against this outrageous additional transfer of wealth to the wealthiest and must, at minimum, demand to that the government be repaid every penny, over time, being used to rescue these crooks from their own wanton irresponsibility and greed.  Congress should also demand that no deal of any kind be granted without immediate relief be given to mortgage holders so we can staunch the bleeding that will certainly continue if the little people continue losing their homes because they can't meet the mortgage payments.  After all, the whole house of cards we call the financial system rests on the ability of the common people to pay their mortgages monthly.  There are a number of ways to do this, but one possibility is to provide every homeowner in the US the opportunity to apply for and receive a low-interest, fixed rate mortgage.  Interest rates are extremely low but the greed of Wall Street is forcing the little people to pay higher interest rates which in turn are making the mortgage crisis worse.  We don't have to stand idly by and allow this situation to continue.  Why not provide mortgages to the people at 1% over the prime rate rght now to stabilize the system instead of bailing out the rich crooks while simultaneously putting the screws to every family in America?  This is the minimum Democrats in Congress should do to salvage what we can from this additional Republican debacle.

But in any event, what Democrats must not do is simply had a blank $700 Billion check to the incompetent tyrant who resides temporarily at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.  If Congressional Democrats allow that to happen then they should all be taken out and shot for cowardice and stupidity.  Democrats must oppose this "socialism for corporations" and demand that the interests of the people, at long last, be the prime consideration in any effort to stabilize the financial system.  That we hear no Democratic voices in Washington even bringing these sorts of things up is extremely disturbing.  Perhaps the netroots can nudge the cowardly Dems into demanding something in return for our $700 billion?