I’m not as positive as the majority of critics this morning that delaying the bailout is a seriously bad thing. But has there ever been a crisis in which a president was more irrelevant? As Dan Froomkin put it, you can ”put a fork” in George Bush now. I find that an ugly image, even for a politician I dislike, but the Republicans' rejection of their former master was even ruder.

Bush has earned this rejection. The bailout as originally proposed had the primary earmark of any major Bush Administration response to a crisis—the aggrandizement of presidential power with no pretense of restraint. Only this time, he failed to reckon with bi-partisan anger with his bumbling and scheming and with the Republican recognition—at last-- than Bush’s long-term efforts have been to strengthen the national government at the expense of Congress, the states, and the individual.

From the Democratic standpoint, Secretary Paulsen’s belated willingness to accept limitations on executive compensation got him some votes. But his original insistence that the only people who would not pay would be the people who did most to create the crisis helped spark the popular opposition that pushed a majority of Republicans and a significant number of Democrats to still just say no.

PS (10/1) An intrguing alternative approach to address the crisis.