Let's see if I have this right:

After days and nights of working on it, a committee made up House and Senate Democratic and Republican leaders, as well as the Republican president's top financial people, agreed to a bill designed to avoid a national and worldwide financial meltdown.

The committee members recommended approval by their various constituencies. But after the measure failed in the House (with 60 percent of the Democrats voting yes and 67 percent of the Republicans voting no), John McCain's campaign blamed the defeat on Barack Obama and the Democrats.

How do they say this stuff with a straight face?

If they were to tell the truth, Republicans would say they're all up for election in November and public opinion is decidedly against the financial bailout bill. Afraid of defeat at the polls, many Republicans congressmen turned thumbs down. That's not exactly leadership, but it would be honest.

And for House Republican minority leaders to actually blame pre-vote remarks by Democratic Speaker Pelosi for some members' decision not to approve the bi-partisan committee plan tells you all you need to know about them and the climate in Washington. It also speaks to the president's inability to rally Republicans to his side.

Meanwhile, the Dow dropped nearly 800 points today.

This is one of the nation's darkest hours.