McCain's gob-smacking spin:
“Just before the vote, when the outcome was still in doubt, Speaker Pelosi gave a strongly worded partisan speech and poisoned the outcome.
“This bill failed because Barack Obama and the Democrats put politics ahead of country.”
I would say that each representative is responsible for his or her own vote; and that the partisan split obviously reflects greater opposition to the bailout from Republicans than from Democrats. Duh. A vote like this should not be made on the basis of anyone's pre-vote rhetoric. The issues are too profound. More Democrats could have voted aye. But many, many more Republicans could have. It was 60 - 40 aye among the Dems and 67 - 33 nay among the Republicans. That's all you need to know, it seems to me.