The Audacity of Nope. Waiting For Sarah.

Well, it's official. The proposed 700 billion dollar Federal bailout of Wall Street has gone down in flames. At the final call, the vote in the House of Representatives stood at 228 - 205.

To think, John McCain made the almost - sacrifice of not really suspending his campaign, not flying to Washington immediately, and not reading the original three-page bill crafted by Henry Paulson until three days had passed, all for nothing.

Of course, McCain did take decisive action: He milked the narrative like a Guernsey cow.

Proclaiming himself Cavalry, he planned to gallop into Washington, into the House of Representatives, and bring his fellow Republicans there to heel in service of country over party, getting a rescue bill passed come Hell or high water. He would provide some real leadership (cuckolding John Boehner in the process) and give cover from the assault by Republican voters back home for this deeply unpopular bailout.

Well, Very Old Ironsides shot nothing but blanks today as the House GOP rigidly refused to absorb any political heat for a new, more measured version of the bill, which would have given the people some measure of justice and control over the dispersal of the billions.

But it gets better - worse, I mean. The failure of the Right to clean up after their own messy orgy of greed is not the most interesting facet of this object lesson about the goose that lays the golden egg.

John Boehner himself now says that, despite the fact that Nancy Pelosi was able to cough up 140 Democratic votes for the bailout, and he himself produced an anemic 65 Republican votes, it was House Democrats playing politics - as - usual to the detriment of our great nation.

Don't blame our party just because they avoided this bill like the plague, he seems to be saying, blame the Democrats who voted for the legislation for its failure. This logic is more than absurd; it's Sarah Palin absurd.

Of course, the Right's pundits are out there spinning, spinning, spinning away at this monster of a failure on their own side. My prediction is: No way. It won't go over. The people are not that stupid. We have found the bottom of the Americans' credulity.

Democrats are not Liberals. If they were, I would become a Democrat. But today the Democratic party stepped forward and showed some cajones. 60% of them signed on to the proposed legislation, and girded themselves for the withering criticism of Main Street. Far fewer, less than 50% of Republicans showed that kind of courage.

Fortunately, the GOP has courage and audacity to spare. Sarah Palin has hunted big game before, and stared the Russkies down, to boot.

She'll know what to do.

See you Thursday, Governor.