THE BAILOUT BILL just failed in the House.

UPDATE: The Democratic leadership couldn’t hold its majority together: “As Jim Geraghty points out, a third of Republicans voted against the bill. But Dems are in control of Congress. The power of Nancy Pelosi and Barack Obama couldn’t convince loyal Democrats to vote for this bill? Seems shocking.” Well, Obama’s not really part of the Senate leadership. Meanwhile, I heard Rush Limbaugh condemning the deal earlier, then looked at my email to find a message from International A.N.S.W.E.R. condemning it too. Strange bedfellows . . . .

But if 2/3 of Republicans had voted for it, and if the Dem leadership could have gotten 2/3 of Democrats to vote for it, then it would have passed handily. Reportedly, though Pelosi’s harshly partisan speech alienated a lot of Republicans. Now why would she do that at a time like this? Did she want the bill to fail?

ANOTHER UPDATE: I think that should be 2/3 of Republicans voting against, above.