Regarding financial system legislation:

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told bloggers on a video conference yesterday that she would not put a bill on the floor without significant bipartisan support. "We [Democrats] are not taking ownership of this."

Bipartisanship in the interest of restoring stability to our financial systems is good and noble. Bipartisanship in the interest to "neither know victory nor defeat" is sad. Now, I don't invoke party affiliation very often, but as a Democrat -- and yes there are pro-business Democrats -- the last two years of carefully calculated inertia have been very, very, frustrating. There is a reason that quarterbacks lead football teams, not punters.