The Politics Around the Financial Bailout

So it looks like the politics around the financial bail-out boil down to this:

Democrats will say that the Republicans didn't provide proper oversight and regulation over the past decade, that the S&L bailout in the late 80s was a direct result of Reagan's policies and that this bailout is a direct result of the policies of the Republican Congress and the Bush administration. (The Republican party controlled Congress from 1994-2006, the presidency from 2001-present, and arguably the courts for the last several years.)

Republicans will say that this is a bi-partisan issue, that both parties are in bed with Wall Street ("what's good for Wall Street is good for the county," that sort of thing), and/or that the Democrats were the ones pushing for more loans to poor people, minorities, and other "sub-prime" borrowers.

The key question to me is whether the Bush administration is able to get Congressional approval for the bailout with minimal strings attached and minimal political fallout, or whether the Democrats will be able to attach strings and extract political leverage now and for the future. The bailout is going to happen, it has to happen, but we'll see how the two parties play their cards.