I found it hard to believe that the Republicans would use Pelosi's speech as a pretext for defeating the bill.

I agree that was a sad excuse, but Pelosi's speech was polarizing.  She really promoted this as a Democratic effort that the Republicans fought against.  I watched her speech and it was truly awful.  She tried to take credit, on behalf of the Democrats, for crafting the bill despite Republican opposition.  That was not approriate.  She should have put politics aside and given credit to the Congress as a whole for coming together on a good compromise that both sides could support.  It was in very poor taste in my opionion.

I think the Democrats contributed a lot to this plan, but their leadership hasn't been doing a good job of bringing the two sides together on this issue.  Dodd, did somewhat better - although he did have to get a good "dig" in on McCain.  He still tried to promote a bi-partisan effort and he deserves some credit for that.

Best,
Robert A. Franco
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