"So, citizens, turn some of your members loose, whom you are holding hostage by telegram and phone call to allegations that are not correct, that are untrue," said Sen. Pete Domenici, a Republican from New Mexico on the Senate floor Tuesday.
Photo: Associated Press
Widespread anger and opposition to the Senate's imminent approval of the Bush Administration's bailout proposal continued to spread online and overwhelm congressional offices in a flood of e-mails, faxes and phone calls on Wednesday.
Despite the online backlash, Senate leaders plan to approve a 400-plus page bill that adds several unrelated provisions to gain support for the legislation in the House.
Voters and advocacy groups are using online petition tools, protest sites like I'm Mad as Hell, and social networking applications such as Linked In, to urge citizens to call members of Congress, and to gather names to show representatives the breadth and depth of their disapproval.
"The
Great Bailout steals money from U.S. taxpayers to bail out people around the world who freely chose to gamble on the financial industry," wrote David Martin, a trader and entrepreneur, in a note to Republican presidential candidate John McCain. Martin is a member of the John McCain for President in 2008 discussion group on Linked In.
Martin's note is one of thousands of messages circulating the internet that are urging people to call and fax their members of Congress to oppose passage of the legislation as it stands. Congressional websites were choked with traffic and e-mail, while phone lines were jammed just hours ahead of the late Wednesday vote.
An aide in the office of Sen. Diane Feinstein, D-Calif., said
Wednesday that the senator has received more than 91,000 e-mails, calls and letters regarding the legislation. Ninety-four percent of the authors of those notes were against the bill.
Both McCain and Barack Obama support the idea of passing the bailout legislation quickly, despite polls showing that public support is plummeting.
"If the financial rescue bill fails in Congress yet again, the present crisis will turn into a disaster," McCain said in a speech on Wednesday afternoon.
He said that students wouldn't be able to obtain loans for college, families wouldn't be able to obtain financing for new homes, new car sales would "come to a halt" and businesses would not be able to pay employees.
Obama pretty much agreed when he spoke to supporters at a rally in La Crosse, Wisconsin, Wednesday. He's scheduled to fly back to Washington, D.C., later Wednesday to vote in favor of the plan.
Several members of the House who voted "no" to the bailout legislation on Monday are in tight reelection races.
The surge in online citizen protest -- coupled with the failure of the House to approve the bailout bill Monday -- prompted Senate minority whip Sen. Pete Domenici, (R-N.M.) to issue a plea.
"So, citizens, turn some of your members loose, whom you are holding hostage by telegram and phone call to allegations that are not correct, that are untrue," he said on the Senate floor Tuesday.
Online protest is coming from both sides of the political divide. On the right, FreedomWorks, a conservative nonprofit, created the NoWallStreetBailout.com website, and has collected 41,415 names and statements from people who oppose it.
The group is delivering its petition to the Senate just hours ahead of Wednesday's vote. Its staff also urged members to call their senators, as have prominent anti-bailout bloggers like Mike Shedlock.
"As a free market economist I unequivocally oppose this legislation because it violates the basic working tenets of free market capitalism and individual responsibility," wrote Dick Armey, the former House majority leader, on the group's website.
Morgan Ward Doran, an attorney at the Securities and Exchange Commission in Los Angeles, was one of the voters who's used his paternity leave in the past week to lobby his members of Congress. He says he was up at two in the morning faxing his senators and representative in Congress.
He also maintains the Stop the Housing Bailout website, which spells out what he thinks are essential components to any bailout legislation, if one must be enacted. And he's posted a spreadsheet on his site showing how specific members voted. He hopes that his site's readers can vote against those who approve the legislation.
Doran says that Rep. Adam Schiff's, D-Calif., office was very responsive. (Schiff voted against the bailout bill Monday.) His staff listened and took notes. But his two senators' office didn't respond in the same way.
"They're a joke. They need to go," he said.
__Update: __To be clear, Doran's views are his own and in no way represent the SEC's. As with most government employees who speak publicly, Doran says:
See Also:
- House Website Crumbles Under Weight of $700 Billion Bailout
- House Members in Tight November Elections Scuttle Bailout
- Bailout Agreement Hits the Net -- Is This Transparency?
- Advocates Demand Congress Put Bailout Details on Internet
- Online Bailout Outrage Jumps to Streets, and Into Lawmakers' Inboxes
- Treasury Secretary's Bailout Request Compared To Spam Scam
