Power Line: Was the Bailout Vote a Partisan Set-Up?: "Everyone has heard about the weirdly partisan and inaccurate rant which Pelosi contributed to the debate on the bailout bill. But that speech did not take place in a vacuum. Public opinion is running strongly against the bill, and it required political courage to vote for it. If you look at the list of those who voted 'No' in both parties, it is mostly members who are engaged in tough re-election campaigns. This is true on both sides of the aisle.

That being the case, and given the fact that the legislation was in fact a negotiated, bipartisan compromise, the first duty of the majority party is to line up its members to support the majority's bill. But evidence is growing that the Democrats did no such thing.

As of yesterday, the Democrats' House whip, Jim Clyburn said that he hadn't even begun 'whipping' Democratic representatives, and wouldn't do so unless and until he got orders from Nancy Pelosi. Today, Democratic Congressman Peter DeFazio told NPR that he never was 'whipped' on the bill. So Pelosi evidently left Democrats to vote their consciences--which is to say, vote against the bill if they thought it was politically necessary--while counting on Republicans to put the bill over the top.

This is a classic Charlie Brown and the football maneuver. Pelosi gives a speech that frames the issue, falsely, as the issue, falsely, as the result of bad Republican policies, then allows her own threatened representatives to do the popular thing while expecting Republicans to take one for the team by casting an unpopular vote. Which, of course, their Democratic opponents would use against them, thereby increasing the Democratic majority in the House.

If this was Pelosi's plan it failed, in part, perhaps, because her over-the-top partisan diatribe tipped off Republicans as to what was afoot. If, as it now appears, it's true that the Democrats made no serious effort to pass the bailout bill, it is just one more example of the failure of leadership we have seen since they took control of Congress."
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This is Powerline's explanation of why the bailout bill collapsed in the House. It is the only explanation for Pelosi's behavior that makes sense to me. I read Pelosi's speech and it was an attack on the Republicans she was expecting to vote for it. Here are some documents that are posted on the House Financial Services Committee web page along with the bill and summaries of it:

On Housing Finance, the Difference between Democrats and Republicans Has Been Night and Day

The Truth about the Community Reinvestment Act

The Truth versus the Republicans on the Regulation of Subprime Mortgages and Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac

The Democrats were being highly partisan in presenting this bill to the public as a fix for Republican failures, which is not true. That would be fair enough given that they have the majority, as long as they pass it as a Democrat bill. But Pelosi wanted to have her cake and eat it. She let the Democrats off the hook. Pelosi did not use her power to get all the Democrats in line, which she certainly could have done. She was counting on a whole lot of Republican support. She got lots of them, but not enough. About 94 Democrats voted against it, and they are a laundry list of the left wing of her party. The Democrats, not the White House, wrote this bill, and Pelosi seriously screwed up. Now it is back to the drawing board and we will see what happens later this week.