Check out the partisan breakdown of the bailout vote. It was extremely bi-partisan:
The vote is closed. The bill is defeated. 205-228 -- there was a last, and I mean really last, minute switcher. A Dem, switching from yea to nay. Could have been a yea voter looking to move to reconsider. Partisan breakdown: 140 Dems for, 95 against, and 65 Rs for, 133 against. One non-voter, and that was Jerry Weller (R-IL).
What I really love about this is how people came together, regardless of party, to defeat this bill, not pass it. It is also just about the only time I can remember where a bi-partisan alliance from the right wing of the Republican Party and the left swing of the Democratic Party came together to defeat the middle. They had different reasons for doing so, but it was an effective alliance none the less.
In fact, that the bi-partisan alliance against the bill had different reasons for opposing it is what actually made it, and will continue to make it, so effective. With the poles opposing the middle, concessions in either direction will result in losing votes in the opposite direction. In other words, there might not be any way to bridge the divide.
It is pretty sweet that the least partisan vote on major legislation that the House has seen in a few years actually defeated the elite DLC / country club Republican interests who are the loudest public proponents of bi-partisanship. While the calls for bi-partisanship are typically based in elitism, this time around bi-partisanship actually defeated the elite consensus, rather than supporting it.
Fun times. This isn't a victory yet, but I am very happy right now.
Update: Roll call vote is here. As was noted in the comments, the votes cut across not only party lines, but also ideological lines within parties. Really, all over the map.
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