NBC political correspondent Andrea Mitchell is one of the network's news stars, so it's only natural that we've been seeing a lot of her lately. Even when the topic turns to the government's and the candidates' responses to the current financial crisis. But you will not see her, supposedly, when the discussion turns to "past economic decisions" that led up to the crisis. Because Mitchell is married to Alan Greenspan, the former Federal Reserve Chairman who many say is basically responsible for the housing bubble. And that is their conflict of interest compromise: Mitchell will report as usual until the reasons we got to this point are discussed, at which point she'll quietly disappear from your television without explanation. Unethical! Or, you know, the standard way of doing business in political journalism. DC is an incestuous town and everyone knows and is basically friends with everyone else. The media-political complex has lots and lots of intermarried "journalists" and "operatives" and everyone has politely agreed to assume that everyone else is totally professional about it. So they get a bit tetchy when the Columbia Journalism Review is all "disclose your relationships or just be more independent or something" because what do those kids know? If Tom Brokaw wants to play golf with John McCain that is his business (note: we don't know if John McCain can play golf but the two are still definitely probably friends). The standard argument is that one has to find concrete evidence of "bias" before one can claim these chummy relationships are no good, but honestly the "bias" is so ingrained in the process that it's a useless task and one is best served by appyling a gimlet-eyed suspicion to everyone one sees on the TV and then voting for Ron Paul.

Well yes, sure, of course we can. But how? It's easiest to just blame greedy bankers or something, because Wall Street assholes act the same way in good times and in bad, and we lionize them in good and castigate them in bad (also we deregulate them in good and bail them out in bad, but whatevs). But now we have our media-blaming excuse: Howard Kurtz, media "critic" for the Washington Post, has weighed in on the financial crisis and is appointing blame in equal measure to everyone! That is the fair way to do things, you know. So hey let's join him in blaming the MSM. The fact of the matter is regular work-a-day journalists, even the high-falutin well-off name ones, don't get finance. Because no one really gets finance besides financiers, and journos are all soft-sciences arts majors. Math is hard! Even now they don't "get" it (though everyone's on the tail end of their "conversant at cocktail parties" crash course, and it shows). Honestly, we spent a couple years studying for BFA, of course we have no fucking clue what happened here. And as both media producers and media consumers, we're reasonably more conversant on many national public interest issues than Joe Sixpack Americans. And yes, in 2004 when the SEC decided to allow investment banks to self-regulate themselves we heard about it on Kos or something and were outraged and all that. But:

Nate Silver runs some numbers and finds that 30 of 38 congressmembers in tight reelection races voted NAY on the bailout. Stupid voters, always wanting to doom the economy! And stupid congressmembers, always wanting to get reelected! "By comparison, the vote among congressmen who don't have as much to worry about was essentially even: 197 for, 198 against." AND: "among 26 congressmen NOT running for re-election (almost all of whom are Republicans), 23 voted in favor of the bill, as opposed to 2 against and one abstaining." [538]

The bailout bill? It didn't pass the House. The vote went 228-205 against, with 95 Democrats and 133 Republicans opposing the Paulson/Dodd/Frank/Pelosi/Blunt plan. Insane. The Dow is self-destructing. The roll call vote is here, the list of members who voted against the bill can be found below. So what now? It'll go back to another vote in the House. Maybe. Something weird happened here, by the way, because in the modern era, votes don't go to the floor of the house until party leaders know how the rank and file will vote. Bills don't make it out of committee unless they're going to pass. This was either too volatile and rushed to work, or Pelosi lost control of her own party, or Boehner lied to her about how many House Republicans were going to grin and bear it. So. Now, because of the Jewish Holidays, nothing will get done until Wednesday. "Asked about the next step, Financial Services Chairman Barney Frank (D-Mass.) said it would be up to those who opposed the bill." That is troubling! Basically, nothing can get done until the election is done. Which is still a bit of a ways away! So let's hope this collapse of the entire financial sector can hold off, for a few weeks, while either another almost-identical bailout bill is drafted and pushed through or Dems create their own fuck-you bill that maybe nationalizes everything like Krugman and Brad DeLong want. (We like that option!) (It's a fantasy, but a guy can dream.) The Dems, obviously, don't want to make this a one-party bill, because then they'll own the "HUGE BAILOUT." But, you know, they could draft an entirely different plan (the Dodd/Frank plan as proposed originally seemed sufficiently different from the Paulson "plan" to warrant a different name) and try to reframe the debate as Paulson's BAILOUT versus their tough love or whatever, but their majority is too small and their instincts too chickenshit to do that. So basically they'll muddle along as the banks burn, or something. Maybe we'll all be fine! Who needs credit anyway. ANYWAYS President Obama is going to inherit one hell of a shitshow. Abercrombie Aderholt Akin Alexander Altmire Baca Bachmann Barrett (SC) Barrow Bartlett (MD) Barton (TX) Becerra Berkley Biggert Bilbray Bilirakis Bishop (UT) Blackburn Blumenauer Boustany Boyda (KS) Braley (IA) Broun (GA) Brown-Waite, Ginny Buchanan Burgess Burton (IN) Butterfield Buyer Capito Carney Carson Carter Castor Cazayoux Chabot Chandler Childers Clay Cleaver Coble Conaway Conyers Costello Courtney Cuellar Culberson Cummings Davis (KY) Davis, David Davis, Lincoln Deal (GA) DeFazio Delahunt Dent Diaz-Balart, L. Diaz-Balart, M. Doggett Doolittle Drake Duncan Edwards (MD) English (PA) Fallin Feeney Filner Flake Forbes Fortenberry Foxx Franks (AZ) Frelinghuysen Gallegly Garrett (NJ) Gerlach Giffords Gillibrand Gingrey Gohmert Goode Goodlatte Graves Green, Al Green, Gene Grijalva Hall (TX) Hastings (WA) Hayes Heller Hensarling Herseth Sandlin Hill Hinchey Hirono Hodes Hoekstra Holden Hulshof Hunter Inslee Issa Jackson (IL) Jackson-Lee (TX) Jefferson Johnson (GA) Johnson (IL) Johnson, Sam Jones (NC) Jordan Kagen Kaptur Keller Kilpatrick King (IA) Kingston Knollenberg Kucinich Kuhl (NY) Lamborn Lampson Latham LaTourette Latta Lee Lewis (GA) Linder Lipinski LoBiondo Lucas Lynch Mack Manzullo Marchant Matheson McCarthy (CA) McCaul (TX) McCotter McHenry McIntyre McMorris Rodgers Mica Michaud Miller (FL) Miller (MI) Mitchell Moran (KS) Murphy, Tim Musgrave Myrick Napolitano Neugebauer Nunes Ortiz Pascrell Pastor Paul Payne Pearce Pence Peterson (MN) Petri Pitts Platts Poe Price (GA) Ramstad Rehberg Reichert Renzi Rodriguez Rogers (MI) Rohrabacher Ros-Lehtinen Roskam Rothman Roybal-Allard Royce Rush Salazar Sali Sánchez, Linda T. Sanchez, Loretta Scalise Schiff Schmidt Scott (GA) Scott (VA) Sensenbrenner Serrano Shadegg Shea-Porter Sherman Shimkus Shuler Shuster Smith (NE) Smith (NJ) Solis Stark Stearns Stupak Sullivan Sutton Taylor Terry Thompson (CA) Thompson (MS) Thornberry Tiahrt Tiberi Tierney Turner Udall (CO) Udall (NM) Visclosky Walberg Walz (MN) Wamp Watson Welch (VT) Westmoreland Whitfield (KY) Wittman (VA) Woolsey Wu Yarmuth Young (AK) Young (FL)

The "serious" finance/econ press (ranging from liberal Krugman to conservative Rich Lowry) agrees that the House Republican plan—insurance??—is a joke. McCain lending his ostensible support to it (though he won't come out for it, his intervention pushed the rebelling Repubs to the forefront of the debate) is designed either to scuttle a compromise he had no part in (vanity) or to provide Republicans the opportunity to avoid supporting an unpopular but arguably necessary bill (sabotage). If Dems were smart, they'd recast their compromise bill as a liberal response to the Bush/Paulson plan. Hopefully it is that, too! I.e. play up the laregly symbolic golden parachute bullshit, etc. Most likely, some version of the Dodd/Frank bill will pass this weekend, with Republican support (and probably with some minor concessions John McCain can crow about). Right? Unless McCain makes good on his threat to travel back to DC after the debate and, you know, win this war on banks. Here's John Carney on what House negotiations will look like now:

Former Gov. Eliot Spitzer has apparently hired Sard Verbinnen & Co. to help him with his bountiful PR needs. Anna Cordasco, a managing director at the firm, was quoted in the Post today as a spokesperson for Spitzer. Sard, as the agency is referred to in a shorthand that annoys co-founder Paul Verbinnen to no end, is one of the top three agencies of its type in the country. Its type being, specialists in high level business-focused PR, as well as crises. They are a major player in financial PR and M&A work, but they also handle lots of different media clients, and crisis work that you often never even hear about. They're very calculating, reserved, and, to use a cliche, strategic. Also, very expensive. They'll probably do a good job for Spitzer—they're not the type to leak, unless they have a good reason. Much of their work will doubtless involve keeping Spitzer out of the news, to the extent they can, until things blow over a bit and they can help relaunch him on some carefully selected positive-looking projects. And, of course, avoiding Choire Sicha's questions. [NYO/ NYP]

When the Spitzer sex scandal broke yesterday, we got in touch with a couple of real live crisis PR professionals to find out what sorts of devious spin moves they would use to help rescue the Governor's career and his reputation from dishonor. If Eliot came to them, cash in hand, asking for public salvation, how would they do it? Their answer: what are we, magicians?

Scaffolding collapse at 915 Broadway and 21st Street! Or actually near-collapse! Firemen on a crane, dismantling! Block closed down! New York Observer reporters forced to take freight elevator in back of building! Take-home message: Don't take a cab down Broadway south of 23rd Street, not that you should anyway, because that is a TERRIBLE route no matter where you're going because of the way Broadway dumps out into Union Square, obviously, but it is totes particularly bad right now! UPDATE: OOH, PICTURE!

Last night, the fire alarm went off at the Harper's Bazaar holiday party! But the resulting video was incredibly boring. (I mean, it was like, a fire alarm. And some queen going, "Ooh there's a fire." There wasn't.) But, thanks to the magic of a tragic and lurid dance remix of the native sounds from the video (so glad I spent that $500 on Logic Pro 8!), now it looks and sounds almost sort of exciting and flashy! (Also the picture of the car helps somehow, no?) OMG THE DRAMA. THE CHIC, CHIC DRAMA! (Also, they were totes playing Grace Jones, so kudos.)

Are cabbies going on strike tomorrow? Beats us! Nobody knows yet! Although some folks in the office say a cabbie was just all, "Yeah, strike, get ready!" So take it from us: Strike! Or don't. Does evidence get more anecdotal?