Doug, your line is so contradictory there must be something besides pure analysis going into it. When it comes to health care reform you're a purist: The Demoplan is a sellout, it won't fix the problem, it should be single-payer or nothing. (I agree.) That's your stance even though, speaking realistically, "we" don't have any real leverage to back up such hard demands on the health care industry.
But when it comes to the bailout, the situation it exactly reversed: Now it's the paymasters of the Democratic Party coming to "us" (say, the Progressive Caucus) on their knees - literally! - begging for a bailout. Yet here, when for once the left could potentially hold all the cards, suddenly you say we must accept half a loaf, a bad bill is better than none, we should all be pragmatic and bipartisan. This would make some sense if it were really true that the world financial system is going to collapse next week without a bailout inked, but that's nonsense. As long as the markets know that *some* bailout will ultimately happen in the relatively near term, they'll manage to limp along until it does. In the meantime, the left wing of the Democrats would be out of their minds not to milk this unusual moment for all the leverage it can generate.
Seth