Word: bille
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...meeting that his caucus does not support the deal and that alternatives should be considered. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has demanded that Boehner get at least half of his caucus - or 100 members - to vote for the legislation so that Democrats are not left passing this still very unpopular bill by themselves less than two months before the election. Boehner simply doesn't have the votes and nothing that President Bush, Vice President Cheney, Secretary Paulson or even Boehner has said has swayed the GOP's rank and file...
...this tale of woe. As far as they're concerned the GOP's platform of deregulation is what caused this problem, and it's a GOP President - however unpopular - who is demanding this fix. They view Boehner's stance with deep suspicion. If enough Republicans did not support the bill, why, they ask, did Republican Senator Bob Bennett and Representative Spencer Bachus, the top Republican on the House Banking Committee, stand at the press conference on Thursday announcing the agreement and voice their support? Why wait until a meeting at the White House to throw out a raft of alternative...
...Perhaps, the Democrats now wonder, the point was actually to make it harder. Some party members think Boehner created a problem for the Republican nominee to fix; if the House Republicans can be brought around from their initial intransigence, McCain would be seen as the savior of the bill. Even some of the McCain campaign's statements Thursday afternoon seemed to suggest as much. "We're optimistic that Senator McCain will bring House Republicans on board without driving other parties away, resulting in a successful deal for the American taxpayer," said McCain spokeswoman Kimmie Lipscomb...
...House Republicans protest they are not playing politics with the bill. Bachus, they say, is a maverick who told the Democratic negotiators six times that he did not have the power to speak for his caucus. The press conference, they contend, was a staged production to give the illusion of an agreement and force it down the throats of unwilling House Republicans. Some point to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's comments Thursday morning that the deal represented what he liked to call "the Obama principles," thus handing the credit to the Illinois senator. And McCain campaign staffers point...
...solution being floated in the Senate, however, might work precisely because there would be no real winners. The Senate, where the bill has more support among Republicans than in the House, would take the lead and attach the bill to a resolution that continues to fund the federal government through the election. That is a measure members have a hard time voting against, and if the Senate then adjourns, the House would pretty much be forced to swallow the Senate's single bill. House members would then be forced to vote for or against the budget along with the bailout...