"The Senate acts as it believes it must, rising to the task of voting with the bankers and bundlers who pay for the Senate."

Conscience: n. Definition: The awareness of a moral or ethical aspect to one's conduct together with the urge to prefer right over wrong.

I object to John Batchelor's use of the word "conscience" to describe the thinking processes of a bunch of rascals, even though I understand he invoked the word as a stab at being sarcastic, as he did with his use of the word "heroes." (His meaning would be crystal clear if he were delivering the lines on his radio show instead of placing them on the uninflected page.)

Other than that, I don't find anything to disagree with in his latest observations about the machinations in the Senate to pass the bailout package.

By John Batchelor, posted on October 02, 2008 at 12:45 AM

Conscience of the Senate

The Senate Obeys the Wall Street Interests
From the easy, overwhelming roll call approval of the Paulson bailout plan, now called the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008, it is impossible to imagine what the fuss is all about. How could something as acceptable, even embraced at 74 to 25, by the partisan-rich Senate have suffered defeat in the House just two days ago?

Is there something in here that is an elixir? No.

The Senate understands that this is the same sausage that the House and the American people rejected, and that the American people continue to reject at 30 to 1, or 100 to 1. More, the senators are receiving emails and telephones calls from the voters that are monolithically opposed.

The Senate hears the American people's "No!" And the Senate acts as it believes it must, rising to the task of voting with the bankers and bundlers who pay for the Senate. No one in the Senate much believes the plan is good, or will work, or is anything other than a hacked together package of guesswork and swollen presumptions. The Senate voted not its facts but its conscience.

The Conscience of the Senate
How useful to consider that the next president of the United States is drafted from these 100 heroes. It will be theirs to start the new administration with the burden of this plan. John McCain , Barack Obama, and Joe Biden voted their own future [on Wednesday night].

Does one of them believe the Paulson purchase of bad loans at inflated priced will solve the fact that the banks are undercapitalized and doomed to quarters of fear, cut-throat talk, drift and slow strangulation? No.

The conscience of the Senate. Not because it is the right thing to do, but because it is the right thing to do [Wednesday night] in order to get out of town.

Thursday, the People's House gathers again to represent their constituents as the senators did not. The emails, telephone calls and faxes are still running 100 to 1 against.

What is the right thing to do? What would you do?

From Politico, here's the quick list of the senators who voted NO on bailout/economic rescue.

Senators who voted No

Allard (R)
Barasso (R)
Brownback (R)
Bunning (R)
Cantwell (D)
Cochran (R)
Crapo (R)
DeMint (R)
Dole (R)
Dorgan (D)
Enzi (R)
Feingold (D)
Inhofe (R)
Johnson (D)
Landrieu (D)
Nelson (FL) (D)
Roberts (R)
Sanders (I)
Sessions (R)
Shelby (R)
Stabenow (D)
Tester (D)
Vitter (R)
Wicker (R)
Wyden (D)