Laura Rozen explains why the Paulson summit meeting blew up without an agreement

We are all aware by now that John McCain got George Bush to call a meeting Thursday in the White House to do something to move the Paulson Proposal through Congress. The meeting included Bush, McCain, Obama, Paulson and Bernanke, Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi, Mitch McConnell, Barney Franks and representatives of the wild-eyed crazy "conservatives" who have dominated the Republicans in the House of Representatives since Gingrich took control in 1994 and then was replaced in 1998 by the even more extremist Tom DeLay. Similar but less publicly visible extremists have replace Tom DeLay since he was required to step down from the position of Majority Leader upon being indicted for money-laundering.

The purpose of the Thursday meeting was to break up the logjam in congress and get a bill passed to bail out Wall Street before the U.S. collapses into a Depression. On Wednesday when the meeting was called it was clearly to complete the final stages of an agreement everyone in congress had signed on to but which still needed some final tweaks to get everyone on board to pass it. Then on Thursday the deal blew up in everyone's faces. Laura Rozen explains what happened.

Bailup Blowup. More from my Hill friend:

Let's be clear about what happened. I heard David Wessel on NPR talking about typical congressional gridlock. That is not it at all. The most conservative faction of Republicans - the faction whose extreme ideology helped get us here and that dominates the party - blew up the deal at the last moment, with the help of their equally irresponsible presidential candidate. I thought Pelosi was in for a nasty surprise when she tried to take the plan to a vote with the Dem caucus. But Dem opponents had no seat at the table in crafting the plan, and have made their dissatisfaction well known. The conservatives have captured the Republican party and were represented in the negotiations. Yet they waited until the last moment and then blew it up. In the name of a ridiculous sketchy alternative that doubles down on their discredited "ideas". It would be like Dennis Kucinich - or Abbie Hoffman - running the show. The Republican Study Group (Hensarling, Cantor, Ryan, the lot of em) are clowns. They had a seat at the table and they conducted themselves in the most irresponsible manner possible. Let their beloved market give them all the credit that is due them.

These are the same extremists who push to financial deregulation ideology and support the corruption that got Wall Street into the mess it is currently in. They also own the Republican party in the House of Representatives, so if they don't accept any agreement it will not be passed.

They are using their position of power to veto the workable solution that had been proposed. They are willing to take America into a Depression in order to defend their failed ideology. Think not? Here is what one of the crazies said:

According to one GOP lawmaker, some House Republicans are saying privately that they’d rather “let the markets crash” than sign on to a massive bailout.

“For the sake of the altar of the free market system, do you accept a Great Depression?” the member asked.

These are the ideological crazies who did the political heavy lifting to get Wall Street to its current position of collapse, and rather than work to solve the problem they created, they are ready to take America into a new Depression. It's not rational. It's religious belief with them.

That's the American conservative movement. They are ready to let the nation die to achieve their vision of the Reagan Revolution.