Will the next Republican House caucus be anti-bailout

"Bush and Paulson, represent  the core of the GOP and voters know it."

More or less, but Televisionland and the electorate cannot be expected to get a kerfuffle like Mortgagegate exactly right, any issue where there is a serious disagreement among Republican Party hogen-mogens as to exactly what the interests of General Motors -- prescriptively the best thing for the USA, no question about that amongst  Elephant People!  -- in fact are.

Televisonland and the electorate do know that America's second party is, and has ever been, "The Party of Business,"  but they know that as a purely verbal truth.   Without some definite idea of who ‘Business’ is,  the formula, though sound, could mean almost anything.

Normal citizens, Democrats and non-cardcarriers,  pretty clearly have a General Motors or Fortune 500 idea of ‘business’, which means, I fear, that they have fallen behind Dr. Limbaugh's "cutting edge of societal evolution."   Ever since the 1980's with its Cocktail Napkin Revolution -- a.k.a. "voodoo economics" -- the doctrinaire Cause of Business has been taken over by AEIdeologues and Heritagitarians and Catoholics and a variety of other Denkpanzer who cherish pseudo- or para-academic notions that would not be much good for General Motors.

At any rate, the whippersnappers' neoideas are not friendly to bailouts and buyouts.  If Charlie Wilson's old gang  cannot survive under a régime of Absolute Free Trade, fine, let them not survive.  ("Does anybody have a problem with that?")

As Mr. Poster remarks,  it looks as if G. W. Bush and H. M. Paulson -- plus let us insert the name of B. S. Bernanke, for who is Field Marshal von Hindenburg without Quartermaster General von Ludendorff?  -- have a bit of a problem with that.  A $850,000,000,000.00 (and growing even as we keyboard) problem with that.

All things considered, it is not easy to be sure what "the voters" make of the show.

Mr. Poster was not exactly right to say "‘GOP Core Principles’ ARE bailouts for the rich and the well-connected."  I don't think voters believe that, and I am certain that they shouldn't believe it.

Almost everybody who speaks for the Cause of Business in a principled -- ideological, abstract, fake-faculty-club -- manner thinks of bailouts as the Rev. Elmer Gantry used to think of fornication and adultery. Unless she wraps her mind into a partisan pretzel to avoid drawing obvious inferences from her own axioms.

One might say that the militant Republicans, considered as Party of Business, have a core and have principles too, but their two treasured possessions are not on speaking terms.  The Core is unquestionably somewhere in the Bush-Bernanke-Paulson vicinity.  The Principles are located far, far away, over at AEI-Heritage-Hoover.  An individual would die of a splitting headache in ten minutes, but the GOP is a faction, not a natural person.  It may even benefit from the schizophrenia, winning some votes because of its core of stout pragmatic heroes and other votes because of its stern and inflexible principles. (It is bound to lose the strict logician voting bloc, I suppose, but what sane pol ever cared about them, for Pete’s sake?)

The Big Picture here is not too difficult to grasp, at least assuming that is more or less a correct account of it, but I doubt "the voters" grasp it.   Economics is notoriously boring, after all, and it may well be too much trouble to bother with "Party of Business" if it has moving parts inside it.

If the electorate take it as show business instead of economics, Bush-Bernanke-Paulson win hands down:  Core 48, Principles 3.

To watch Emperor and Hindenburg and Ludendorff not just make sure that we good guys win the war like we so obviously deserve to, but actually save the whole known universe from the Dragon of Depression!  That is lots more fun than sitting through yet another sermon on "Thou shalt not tamper with The Market."   And what with Original Sin and a’ that, folks who are beginning to really worry about their portfoliettes a little will probably not be in the mood for too much Principle, even when they officially agree with Principle one thousand percent.

But I oversimplify.  My Big Picture not so much as mention the Crown Prince!

Senator McCain is neither a GOP core conspirator nor a devotee of GOP principles.  When he performs his watch-me-rise-above-partisanship trick, he soars off into the wild blue yonder and leaves both core and principles gazing up in astonishment.  Who can guess what the maverick flyboy will do next?

He seems to have some trouble guessing himself, to judge from a new piece called McCain changes homeowner plan:

"Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) made an overnight change in the homeowner bailout he proposed at Tuesday’s presidential debate, making it more generous to financial institutions and more costly for taxpayers.  McCain's staff says it was always meant that way."

An additional advantage for Core over Principles, I guess that comes to, so make the score 54-3.

(Surely J. Sidney cannot actually have said anything much like "It was always my intention to make this bold rescue effort more costly for taxpayers"? Not out loud?!)

If former Secretary of Invasion Charles Wilson  [d. 1961]  could be with us this morning, he would presumably have difficulty finding a bailout he didn't like.  GM has been taken care of already, and it would be churlish not to let other corporate biggies share the trough, would it not?

and they assume (I think) that Business is Charley  Wilson & Co.    

...For an entertaining read, with truly interesting, illuminating points made.

I said "GOP Core Principles’ ARE bailouts for the rich and the well-connected." because GW Bush in his speech before a crowd of multi-millionaires at the Alfred E Smith Dinner in NY in October 2000 said "Some may consider you the elites; I consider you my base."

From the Keating Five to the S&L bailout to oil-company depletion allowances to agribusiness subsidies and giveaways the GOP has always been true to its ddonors and contributors in dispensing largesse and a handout when rainy days appear.

Core GOP principle:  The elite and the rich in this country got there because they are genetically better at competing than the poor. 

In this situation, that means that when they do stupid things like bundle bad loans into AAA-rated notes that are then sold as AAA properties, it is treated as just a case of trying to pursue profit a little too hard, and not something deserving punishment.

See, the rich, smart, and connected should reap the benefits of being rich, smart, and connected, right?  After all, this IS the GOP's America!

Mmm.. maybe not so much after November.