From the new issue of Weekly Standard:

“Barney Frank is about to give Mister Market a big enema” (a CNBC guest remarking on the likelihood that the House of Representatives would pass the Treasury’s bailout plan, October 3.)

Did you ever think Rosh Hashanah would get this big?

All those years when you made that rare trip to Temple, when you dipped your apples in honey, when you heard the bold sound of the shofar triumphantly welcome the Jewish new year – did you ever suspect that one day all that commotion would cause Congress to, well, not act?

Such was Rosh Hashanah 5769 – or for you non-Jews reading this, September 30 and October 1, 2008.

As FDR might have put it, a High Holiday that will live in inaction.

For it was this year’s Rosh Hashanah that led members of Congress to abandon deliberation over the financial bailout package to return home to – well, what exactly did they do, pray?

Um, not exactly.  Out of 535 Senators and Congressmen, there are 13 Jewish Senators and 29 Jewish members of the House.  Barely enough for a minyan.  Barely enough to overcook brisket and undercook kugel.

According to the AP, “the last time the House met on Rosh Hashana, to take care of some minor chores, was in 1997.”

But this year Rosh Hashanah was the event that ate legislation.  And it became the most buzzed about Jewish holiday since Adam Sandler’s musical tribute to Chanukah.

Politico’s Crypt reported:

One complicating wrench in the Wall Street bailout is religious. At sundown tonight, the Jewish holiday of Rosh Hashanah commences. Several of the key Congressional players in the negotiations are Jewish, including Democrats Barney Frank and Rahm Emanuel, and Republican Eric Cantor. During a press conference, Frank stated that he won’t be available tomorrow because of the holiday.

And in the true spirit of bipartisanship, or at least bireligiousnessshipness, non-Jews showed new year’s solidarity.

Congregationalist Sen. Judd Gregg (R-NH) said at a press conference: “It just happens to be the appropriate action to take, to recognize this very important holiday.”  Indeed, it is a very important holiday — we even wear a yarmulke and call our parents.

And we do a lot of introspection.  Again, something good for both Jews and goys, girls and boys.  Speaking at the National Press Club, according to Politico, former House speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Southern Baptist) “said that the Jewish holiday of Rosh Hashanah had given all members a time for contemplation.”

Members were contemplating, sure.  But some might call it seething.

We learned this about the Democrats from a report by CNN’s Jessica Yellin: “They are trying to bring this to another vote ideally. They’re not letting Jewish members go home.  You know it’s on the eve of the Jewish holiday, asking everybody to stay put and see if they could have another vote.”

Let my people go!  (Oh, sorry, wrong holiday imagery.)

So their Rosh Hashanah dash for the doors was delayed.  And in place of a sermon, what did they get?  This Nancy Pelosi speech from the floor: “As you go home and see your families and observe the holiday and the rest, don’t get settled in too far, because … as long as in the households of America, this crisis is being felt very immediately and being addressed at a different level, we must come back, and we will come back as soon and as often as it is necessary to make the change that is necessary.”

Which makes us wonder, if a Jewish Democratic member disobeyed Pelosi, is he/she expected to atone for that sin on Yom Kippur?

But they still made it out.  Just like fleeing Egypt as the Red Sea divided (Oops, wrong holiday again.)

Congress rushed the exits so fast, it was more than Rosh Hashanah.  It was Rush Hashanah.

The Exodus wasn’t lost on the media.

Gene Lyons wrote in the Arkansas Democrat Gazette:  “The poor babies got their feelings hurt. Then they went running back to their districts to spend the Jewish holiday campaigning as champions of Main Street.”

Glenn Beck said, “Tomorrow everybody was saying it`s Rosh Hashanah. They`re in a hurry to get home. And I don’t care what — I don’t care if the Lord himself comes down for birthday cake. We got some business to take care of here.”

Mmmm, high holiday birthday cake.  Count me in.  I’ll even push away the kugel.  But don’t tell Speaker Pelosi that there’s talk of a festive dessert course.  Her official Rosh Hashanah message this year was kinda bleak:

“On the eve of Rosh Hashanah, we rededicate ourselves to ending poverty and bringing peace to the world. As we consider the economic challenges facing our nation, we send our thoughts to those who are struggling to feed, clothe, and shelter their families.”

And struggling to vote on the bailout package.

President Bush took a different tack in his official 5769 message:

“During this holy time, men and women take time to remember the past, contemplate the sweetness of the new year, and look forward to a promising future.”

A promising future, as long as no one checks out their 401(K) or IRA statements for a while.

Or perhaps by promising future he means Congress would pass his financial legislation.

As we all know, the Lord works in mysterious ways.

One of the more interesting aspects of Congress considering financial bailout legislation is certain members of Congress’ own dubious history with banks — and indictments.

Extreme Mortman historian Richard Andrews reminds us these two distinguished gentlemen.

Former U.S. Rep. Edward Mezvinsky (D-Iowa):

In a 129-page indictment in March 2001, federal prosecutors charged Mezvinsky “with 66 counts of fraud and related offenses. They allege he committed fraud ‘by misusing attorney escrow accounts held in his name, engaging in schemes involving worthless checks deposited at banks, creating forged bank statements, using false financial statements, tax returns and accountant’s letters and giving false testimony under oath.’”

Mezvinsky pleaded guilty in January 2003 and was sentenced to six years, eight months in prison.

And former Rep. Patrick Swindall (R-GA):

From the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Elevenths Circuit, 1992: “In mid-1987, Swindall asked LeChasney for financial advice concerning a million-dollar note he held, which matured in four years and was earning eight-percent interest. The note represented part of the proceeds of the sale of commercial real estate in downtown Atlanta. Swindall, who was in need of funds to pay for cost overruns on a home he was having built, wanted to sell the note or use it to obtain a loan, whichever generated the most favorable tax consequences. LeChasney informed Swindall that he knew of investors who might be willing to buy the note, but who would pay only in cash. He explained that the cash was “flight capital” smuggled from Central American countries by refugees fleeing oppression, and that the investors needed to hide their assets and conceal their identities to protect themselves from the governments of these countries.”

Swindall was sentenced to a year in prison.

Nancy Pelosi gets this withering treatment from the Post’s Dan Balz this morning:

Still, Pelosi deserves no praise for her leadership on Monday. Even stipulating that we are in the closing weeks of one of the most important political campaigns in a generation, her inability to rise above the tendency to score political points was inexcusable. Monday’s vote was a moment to set aside those instincts and talk about the package as an example of Washington’s ability to work cooperatively in a time of crisis.

Reliable Source provides this round-up:

“Now the Wall Street crony capitalists have put a 700-pound, billion-dollar bag of dung on taxpayers’ doorsteps, rung the bell and expect you to thank them when you answer it.”

– Rep. Thaddeus McCotter (R-Mich.)

“This is a huge cow patty with a piece of marshmallow stuck in the middle of it, and I’m not going to eat that cow patty.”

– Rep. Paul Broun (R-Ga).

All fun.  But not as fun as John Boehner:

In a closed-door session with House Republicans Sunday evening, Minority Leader John A. Boehner called the $700 billion financial rescue deal a “crap sandwich.”

A happy Rosh Hashanah?

Not if you’re Jewish, a Democrat, and a member of the U.S. House of Representatives.

A report today by CNN’s Jessica Yellin:

“The Democrats, I can tell you what I understand is next. They are trying to bring this to another vote ideally. They’re not letting Jewish members go home.  You know it’s on the eve of the Jewish holiday, Asking everybody to stay put and see if they could have another vote.”

Which makes us wonder, if a Jewish Democratic member voted against Pelosi, is he/she expected to atone for that sin on Yom Kippur?

Spotted in Yeas & Nays:

“[Steny Hoyer is] not the kind of guy you want to drink a beer with. He’s more the kind of guy who oversees the licensing of those who would serve you beer.”
–Larry Smith, who engaged in short-lived run for Congress this year, writing about his meeting with the House Majority Leader in the latest issue of GQ

Here’s Jim Bunning back in July:

Sen. Jim Bunning (R-Ky.) slammed the plan to bailout Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae as socialism on Wednesday.
“Nothing wrong with it, but we don’t have socialism here in the United States,” Bunning said on CNN. “And if you want to go to socialism, let’s go to France.”

And here’s Jim Bunning yesterday:

“This massive bailout is not a solution — it is financial socialism, and it’s un-American,” fumed Jim Bunning (R-Ky.).

Socialism in America — we’ll always have Paris.

We read this today in the Examiner’s Yeas & Nays column:

Woe betide anyone with a sticker on his car for liberal Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif. This according to freshman Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, who advocated for loosening the District of Columbia’s gun laws from the House floor on Tuesday night.

“Bad guys aren’t dumb, they are just bad,” said Jordan, “and here is the dynamic that is at work. If you have a bad guy, a bad guy out there on the street trying to figure out which home he is going to rob some night, and there are two adjacent properties side by side. In one driveway is a pickup truck with a gun rack and a bumper sticker that says, ‘I love the NRA’ and ‘Palin for President.’”

In the very next driveway, you have a Volkswagen with a Greenpeace bumper sticker and, respectfully, ‘Waxman for President’ bumper sticker as well, which place do you think he is going to target for a crime?”

Fair enough.  But what we want to know is, what bumper sticker is on Charlie Rangel’s Mercedes Benz?

Democrats continually pound John McCain for saying a while back, ““The issue of economics is not something I’ve understood as well as I should.”

They might want to rething that strategy.  This quote by Harry Reid about the financial crisis doesn’t give us any more assurance:

With Congress scheduled to adjourn next week, no one expects quick action, and there’s a good reason for that, said Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.).

“No one knows what to do,” Reid told reporters.

No one knows what to do?  So disappointing that with all those Congressional speeches and posturing — heck, with Reid’s counterpart Nancy Pelosi stipulating that Democrats bear no responsibility for the Wall Street crisis — no one’s got a clue for next steps, not even the Senate Majority Leader.  Pity.
Talk about plummeting consumer confidence.