It is not a popular measure, but the alternative is far worse. I found it hard to believe that the Republicans would use Pelosi's speech as a pretext for defeating the bill. However, I think that everyone realizes it has to pass in some form. The Democrats preferred a bipartisan vote since it was at the behest of the current administration. CNN reported that efforts are being made to get enough Democrats and Republicans on board to accomplish it on Thursday.  One of the Congressmen interviewed indicated that if they were unable to secure enough bipartisan support from the Republicans...they would redraft the bill to include all of the measures that the Democrats sacrificed in the compromise, and secure enough Democrats' votes to pass the bill over any Republican opposition. Apparently the feeling is that Bush is desperate enough to sign anything that frees up enough funds for the bail out.

Interestingly one of the economists interviewed last night indicated that something had to be done to avoid global depression. However, he felt that the bail out bill was not the way to go. He favored other means such as loans being made by the federal government to the troubled financial institutions.  The European Union issued a communique this morning indicating that the world wide crisis was triggered by the sub prime melt down in the American housing market, and that it was appropriate for the U. S. to get its house in order financially...in light of European bail outs of banks in Denmark, England , Scotland and Ireland. If we come through this mess it will be interesting to see what regulations on the housing market will result.