Magnifisyncopathological

This car was parked next time mine last night.

This was displayed in the rear window.

There are a number of ways to interpret this. The three I think that are most likely are:

• This person is against the $700 billion bailout bill proposed by Bush's Republican administration and believes a coherent strategy to fight back is to support Democratic Party candidates.
• This person is against Bush and his plans in general and believes a coherent strategy to fight back is to support Democratic Party candidates.
• This person blames Bush for the situation that gave rise to the need for a bailout bill and believes a coherent strategy to fight back is to support Democratic Party candidates.

There are some distinctions here worth nothing, but I think there is no doubt this person thinks more Democrats in power are the solution.

Of course, there are just 212 small problems with that.

74 Yeas, 25 Nays

Akaka (D-HI) Baucus (D-MT) Bayh (D-IN) Biden (D-DE) Bingaman (D-NM) Boxer (D-CA) Brown (D-OH) Byrd (D-WV) Cardin (D-MD) Carper (D-DE) Casey (D-PA) Clinton (D-NY) Conrad (D-ND) Dodd (D-CT) Durbin (D-IL) Feinstein (D-CA) Harkin (D-IA) Inouye (D-HI) Kerry (D-MA) Klobuchar (D-MN)

Kohl (D-WI) Lautenberg (D-NJ) Leahy (D-VT) Levin (D-MI) Lieberman (ID-CT) Lincoln (D-AR) McCaskill (D-MO) Menendez (D-NJ) Mikulski (D-MD) Murray (D-WA) Nelson (D-NE) Obama (D-IL) Pryor (D-AR) Reed (D-RI) Reid (D-NV) Rockefeller (D-WV) Salazar (D-CO) Schumer (D-NY) Webb (D-VA) Whitehouse (D-RI)

I still consider Lieberman a Democrat, so he counts here. That makes 40 D's voting for the bailout. Only 10 Democrats (and Sanders) voted against. You'll also notice a few Presidential candidates and other Democratic heavy-hitters in that list. From the other side, 34 Republicans voted for the bailout and 15 voted against. The bill would have died in the Senate without either party's support, but it is clear that Republican Senators were a bit more likely to vote against it than Democratic Senators.

263 Yeas, 171 Nays

Abercrombie Ackerman Allen Andrews Arcuri Baca Baird Baldwin Bean Berkley Berman Berry Bishop (GA) Bishop (NY) Boren Boswell Boucher Boyd (FL) Brady (PA) Braley (IA) Brown, Corrine Capps Capuano Cardoza Carnahan Carson Clarke Cleaver Clyburn Cohen Cooper Costa Cramer Crowley Cuellar Cummings Davis (AL) Davis (CA) Davis (IL) DeGette DeLauro Dicks Dingell Donnelly Doyle Edwards (MD) Edwards (TX) Ellison Ellsworth Emanuel Engel Eshoo Etheridge Farr Fattah Foster Frank (MA)

Giffords Gonzalez Gordon Green, Al Gutierrez Hall (NY) Hare Harman Hastings (FL) Higgins Hinojosa Hirono Holt Honda Hooley Hoyer Israel Jackson (IL) Jackson-Lee (TX) Johnson, E. B. Kanjorski Kennedy Kildee Kilpatrick Kind Klein (FL) Langevin Larsen (WA) Larson (CT) Lee Levin Lewis (GA) Loebsack Lofgren, Zoe Lowey Mahoney (FL) Maloney (NY) Markey Marshall Matsui McCarthy (NY) McCollum (MN) McGovern McNerney McNulty Meek (FL) Meeks (NY) Melancon Miller (NC) Miller, George Mitchell Mollohan Moore (KS) Moore (WI) Moran (VA) Murphy (CT) Murphy, Patrick

Murtha Nadler Neal (MA) Oberstar Obey Olver Ortiz Pallone Pascrell Pastor Pelosi Perlmutter Pomeroy Price (NC) Rahall Rangel Reyes Richardson Ross Ruppersberger Rush Ryan (OH) Sarbanes Schakowsky Schiff Schwartz Scott (GA) Sestak Sires Skelton Slaughter Smith (WA) Snyder Solis Space Speier Spratt Sutton Tanner Tauscher Thompson (CA) Tierney Towns Tsongas Van Hollen Velázquez Wasserman Schultz Waters Watson Watt Waxman Weiner Welch (VT) Wexler Wilson (OH) Woolsey Wu Yarmuth

My, that's a lot of House Democrats. Lookit how many Important People are in that list. The final tally was 172 "yes" Democrats and 63 "no" Democrats. Republicans voted 108 to 91 against it in the House. Again, the bill couldn't have passed without Republican support, but it's clear the Democrats voted more in favor of the bill than against it.

So, 212 Democrats voted for the $700 billion bailout bill. That constitutes the vast majority of Democrats or Democrat-type congresspeople.

I was actually wrong about the ways to interpret that person's sign. There is another option, one I think is the most likely.

• He or she is just an ignorant gawddamn partisan idiot.

This is all the more annoying because this person is right to hate, oppose, or question the wisdom of the bailout.

Unfortunately, because he or she is an ignorant gawddamn partisan idiot who wants people to vote and vote Democratic, I have no doubt that this opposition arises from the application of the the principles behind the bill rather than the principles themselves. Taxation, redistributionism, protectionism, statism...if I had sought this person out and questioned him or her regarding these ideas, the answers would have been entirely mainstream.

I bet the dumbass voted for Obama/Biden, whose names are on the Senate bailout list above.