Congress wants to avoid blame, Great Depression

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - No member of Congress wants to be blamed for the next Great Depression, particularly in an election year.

So Democrats and Republicans seem certain to set aside objections to unprecedented federal intervention and approve a massive financial rescue plan soon.

They will then head home in advance of the November 4 elections and hope it works.

"There are disagreements over aspects of the rescue plan but there is no disagreement that something substantial must be done," President George W. Bush said on Friday as negotiators entered a ninth day of talks on his $700 billion proposal.

"Nobody wants to do this," House Republican Leader John Boehner of Ohio said earlier this week before a clash in talks. "But I would argue if we do nothing, we are jeopardizing our economy, jobs, people's retirement security."

"It will happen because it has to happen," House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a California Democrat, told ABC's "Good Morning America."

To be sure, the fate of members of the Democratic-led Congress as well as the American people are at risk.

If a bailout succeeds, lawmakers will be part of a historic rescue that helps investors, homeowners and businesses -- big and small.

But if it fails or if lawmakers refuse to support a plan, they will be blamed for economic suffering and likely be thrown out of office by angry voters.

"They will cut a deal because they don't want to throw the dice and come up short," said Ethan Siegal of The Washington Exchange, a firm that tracks institutional investors.

Polls have shown public opposition to providing hundreds of billions of dollars to assist failed fatcats on Wall Street amid record home foreclosures and the worst financial crisis since The Great Depression some 70 years ago.

But as Norm Ornstein, a congressional scholar at the American Enterprise Institute put it: "A public that doesn't like this rescue package may like matters even less when the economy goes into the toilet."

Sen. Charles Schumer of New York, chairman of the Senate Democratic campaign committee, took the Senate floor to make a plea for bipartisan action. "We must come together," he said.

Still, there have been plenty of political pot shots.

Boehner warned a large majority of his fellow House Republicans may not vote for a $700 billion bailout unless their alternative is given serious consideration.

Democrats charged that Republicans' traditional opposition to federal regulation helped trigger the Wall Street meltdown.

"President Bush said on (last) Friday that we should assign blame later -- which is, of course, exactly what you would expect the culprit of the crisis to say," said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reed, a Nevada Democrat.

Democrats, feeling they have been burned before by an over reaching Bush, particularly in the Iraq war, demanded court review and tough congressional oversight in any rescue plan.

They also blasted Republican presidential nominee John McCain for interrupting his campaign to come to Washington to join talks, accusing him of grandstanding.

McCain stayed one day before leaving Friday to debate Democratic presidential rival Barack Obama in Mississippi. Aides said he would return to Washington afterward.

Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell brushed off the Democratic criticism of McCain. "His goal is that we get it resolved," McConnell said.