That’s the best way to summarize the collapse on the House floor yesterday and the resulting tumble on Wall Street.
The Wall Street Journal and the New York Times hit the political class hard for the failure of Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson’s $700 billion bank bailout plan and the 778-point slide the Dow Jones Industrial average took immediately following the failed House vote.
The best point in the Times piece was this:

The leaders of both parties failed, many analysts agreed, in bringing the measure to the House floor without knowing whether it had the votes to pass — a bad move at any time, but especially so in this case given the risk of the markets and the badly weakened financial system reacting badly.

Really, both caucuses ought to find new leaders. How can House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Minority Leader John Boehner be allowed to stay in power after what they did Monday? They set up a vote they called vital to the economy. They watched it fail. And then they called it a day. Nice work, folks. Could you possibly have messed things up more?
It’s pretty clear that the Bush administration’s explanations, to both lawmakers and the public, of the need for the package were inadequate.
And the GOP opposition’s not doing a whole heck of a lot better.
Check out the statements put out by our own guy, Rep. Joe Pitts, and neighboring York County Congressman Todd Platts.
Pitts mentions some mysterious remedy called “suspending mark to market accounting” and beyond that says little about his reason for opposing the bailout beyond not wanting to put taxpayers’ money at risk.
Platts’ statement is less confusing but no more informative as to what he would like to see done.
Can’t anybody come up with a solution that sounds like it makes sense? We pay our political class pretty well. It’s time for them to start earning it.
First things first: Get rid of Pelosi and Boehner.
I’d say Paulson should go, too, but who the heck would want his job now?