I blame Pelosi . . .

for the failure of the mortgage bailout bill to pass the House. Since the crisis began, Republican leaders outside the House -- the President, Secretary Paulson, and John McCain -- went to considerable lengths to avoid partisan finger-pointing. Their emphasis was on the need to work quickly and in a bipartisan fashion to rescue a financial system teetering on disaster. Even House Republicans, who largely opposed the Paulson plan, generally focused their criticisms on whether the plan was really the best option and not on the role of the Democratic leaders in creating the crisis.

The same cannot be said of Nancy Pelosi. Just before the House vote, she took the floor to blast the Bush administration and "Republican policies" for creating the financial crisis. And that would have been fine -- disgraceful, but fine -- except for one thing: Pelosi was counting on Republican votes to get the bill passed. In fact, she reportedly has been angling for 100 Republican votes since the negotiations have been underway. Her own caucus split about 60-40% in favor of the bill. Accordingly, she needed the support of about 40% of the Republicans in order to pass it. Evidently, it failed to occur to her that blaming the Republicans for the crisis would make them less inclined to support it.

Perhaps, she wanted to try to have it both ways. If the bailout worked, she and the Dems would have taken the credit for averting disaster. If it didn't work, or if the cost of the bailout proved too onerous, she would already be on record as pawning the entire problem off on the Republicans. In other words, as far as she was concerned, there wasn't going to be anything bipartisan about it. She wanted the Republican votes, but wasn't going to share any of the credit if it worked out or assume any of the blame if it didn't.

I'm not much for bumper-sticker political cliches, but this really is an example of how "Washington is broken."