Shields and Brooks Preview High-stakes VP Debate

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• JIM LEHRER:

  And finally tonight, some special analysis by Shields and Brooks, syndicated columnist Mark Shields, New York Times columnist David Brooks.

  First, the Senate vote, Mark, on the financial plan. What happened? Where did those 74 votes suddenly come from?

• MARK SHIELDS, Syndicated Columnist:

  Well, Jim, I was up there covering it, and I have to say I don't know the merits of this. I know two things: It was a tough vote to cast this close to an election.

  We saw that in the House earlier in the week, where a lot of people did a Dixie. They went south. You're asking people to inconvenience themselves, put themselves at risk. It was enormously unpopular. There was a great populist radio organized uprising against it.

  And I just — you know, as a citizen, taking off my journalist hat, I felt good watching people, quite honestly, like John Sununu of New Hampshire, who's in a tough race for re-election, probably trailing at this point Jeanne Shaheen, the former Democratic governor, and he voted for it.

  I mean, it would have been easy for him to do it. But I think there was an acknowledgment. Arlen Specter said to me — he said…

• JIM LEHRER:

  Senator from Pennsylvania, Republican.

• MARK SHIELDS:

  Senator from Pennsylvania, Republican, who said to me, he said, "Look, we were goaded by the House action and 778 points on the Dow Jones." I mean, that did it.

• JIM LEHRER:

  Did you think that was it?

• DAVID BROOKS, Columnist, New York Times:

  Well, they also added some sweeteners, $150 billion. It used to be $150 billion was like a whole bill. Now it's just a little sweetener off on the side.

  But I agree with Mark. The culture of the Senate is different than the culture of the House. There's less of the populist — either on the left or the right — in the Senate.

  And, listen, you're a senator or even a House member, you know a little about Wall Street, but you don't know a lot. You don't really understand. But you look at the array of expertise that says the same thing: This is not a great bill. We have to do it, what the two economists here said just now on the program. And you say, "OK, I trust them. We've got to do it."

  To me, the amazing thing is you have so many House members who say, "I may not understand this, and all of expert opinion may be on one side saying we've got to do it, but I still say no." I mean, that's sort of arrogant. And senators have a tendency to be arrogant, but not that arrogant.

• JIM LEHRER:

  So what's going to happen with the House now?

• MARK SHIELDS:

  Well, I don't think twice in the same week the House leadership is going to bring up a bill if they don't have the votes.

• JIM LEHRER:

  Well, Nancy Pelosi said, no way we're going to bring it up if we don't have the votes.

• MARK SHIELDS:

  Absolutely. No, I mean, I think that was stunning for all involved. I think they will pass it on Friday, and I think that that will do the Congress's work for the year, and they'll go home and campaign, where they've always wanted to be.