A Chequer-Board of Nights and Days

The Times has one of its usual, dyspeptic editorials up attacking the Bush Administration for threatening to veto the homeowner bailout bill currently being considered by Congress. At the end, we get this:

The House is to be commended for defying Mr. Bush's veto threat, especially the 39 Republicans who joined all the House Democrats. When the Senate considers a similar measure, Republicans there are likely to face pressure, too. At least the Senate bill will probably not be considered until after Memorial Day. While home for the holiday, senators are sure to hear from constituents about the need for mortgage relief. That might inspire lawmakers to do what Mr. Bush is unwilling to do.

The effort to communicate a political threat is amusing. It might actually be effective, were it not for articles like this one:

Democrats may be risking a backlash at the polls in November by pushing hard to use taxpayer money to rescue homeowners who can no longer afford their mortgages in the face of stiff resistance from President Bush and many other Republicans.

The Democrats in Congress and the party's presidential candidates frame the issue as doing at least as much for beleaguered homeowners as the government is doing for Wall Street. The White house and most House Republicans counter this amounts to using taxpayer money to reward bad behavior.

The Republican protests are striking a chord with some Americans who are paying their mortgages on time or who didn't buy more house than they can afford.

[. . .]

A Gallup Poll in late March found that 56% of Americans favor government intervention to prevent people from losing their homes because they can't pay their mortgages, while 42% oppose it. The partisan divide was sharp: 58% of Republicans opposed intervention; 71% of Democrats and 55% of independents supported the idea.

Even some voters who support a government rescue are uneasy about haste. "I don't think we can just stay hands-off," says Walt King, a mechanical engineer from Downers Grove, Ill. "The people who got sucked into this are not capable of making calculations about whether they could afford this." But Mr. King, 62, who says he is likely to vote for Sen. Barack Obama, is wary of a rushed political response. "I don't know what the answer is," he said. "The election year is not a year to pray for objectivity."

For such a supposedly slam-dunk political issue, the homeowner bailout is running into a great deal more opposition than the Times editorial board and its natural allies in the Democratic Party appear to have thought that it would. And just imagine how much more the opposition would increase if some enterprising politician would point out that no one is talking about bailing out renters if the cost of living in a rented apartment or house increases.