Takes one who's attended them to know about them, evidently.

From today's WashPost, page C3: 

"Defending his veep pick Sarah Palin yesterday, Sen. McCain twice made withering references to the sort of critics who hang out at 'Georgetown cocktail parties.'...

For what it's worth, our colleague Sally Quinn said yesterday that McCain hasn't been a stranger on the circuit.  'I've sat next to him many times at dinner parties in Georgetown,' she said. 'He's an absolutely delightful dinner partner.'"

McCain's already on record as supporting the bill the Senate is scheduled to take up tonight.  (If Obama has also said he's voting yes, please feel free to disregard the rest of this post.  I haven't heard news to that effect.)  Suppose he votes no, calling for Congress to remain in session until the crisis is resolved--so it can act readily if there are indications the real economy is starting to be seriously harmed.

It's had a bunch of tax cuts added to it.  So Obama could say, look, this is worse than the House bill that was voted down, moving in the wrong direction as far as addressing the crisis, Main Street and the taxpayers are concerned.

He also could truthfully say that it is clear from the public reaction that a great many citizens and taxpayers--and a growing number of Wall Street insiders and economists with expertise who are now coming forward--have real concerns about whether this is the best available alternative to protect Main Street and the taxpayers while most effectively resolving the situation.  

He recommends (better still if he could announce this, with Pelosi and Reid at his side) that Congress hold joint, nationally televised hearings, beginning tomorrow, at which top economists say what they think and field any and all questions.  This should provide greater reassurance for members of the public who have concerns or fears.  Meanwhile, Congress will remain in town, so it can vote on very short notice if need be, until the situation is addressed.  

Just putting this out there to see what folks think. 

(text of email sent this AM to one of my senators.  I left a voice message for him and for Majority Leader Reid to the same effect, as succinct as I could make it.)

Senator: I am a strong supporter who is urging you to ask Majority Leader Reid to postpone the vote today and work with Speaker Pelosi to hold joint Senate-House, open, nationally televised hearings at which respected economists (including Krugman, DeLong, Dean Baker, among others) are invited to share their thoughts on what should be done, if anything, and why, and also to field questions from members.  I would guess they could be available tomorrow if called upon.  As you well know there is deep public suspicion that what is being voted on is a taxpayer giveaway to Wall Street, with weak accountability and protections for the taxpayers.    I am concerned that the proposal scheduled to be voted on today may well not work and hope Congress can try to take just a little time to try to improve the chances we get it right.  I hope Congress will be kept in town in the event that the stock markets start to tank again rapidly and/or there are signs of possible major repercussions for Main Street/aka the real economy.   When I think of senators most likely to do the right thing for our country, including for Main Street and the ordinary citizen, you are one of those (along with Senators Sherrod Brown and Bernie Sanders) who give me the most hope.   Thank you for listening.
Sincerely,
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
(end of letter)

Please feel free to post your own version in this thread--having more versions available to draw from for others who feel similarly and want to contact senators is helpful.  

Also see <a href="http://tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com/talk/2008/09/click-here-to-tell-pelosi-we-w.php#comment-3144270">this</a> comment in a recent thread for other ideas that might help you decide what you want to say.

Of course, we know that tomorrow and Wednesday, with the Congress out of session because of the Jewish holiday, the markets will calm down.  So the thought of Congress taking another vote on today's or a revised proposal before Thursday would not occur to anyone as an action which might conceivably help to stabilize the situation.

But, on the off chance that the markets don't calm down, but instead continue to nosedive, have Pelosi and Reid categorically ruled out any possibility of calling Congress back into session to vote on either the same or a revised package?  

Am I the only Jewish American who is not so sure that is the right thing to do under the circumstances?

It should take a fairly extraordinary set of circumstances for there to be any possibility of calling Congress back into session when it was scheduled to be out of session for the Jewish New Year, or any other scheduled recess due to the observance of a religious holiday.

Well.  It seems to me as though another huge dive in the markets tomorrow might qualify as such an emergency.

Some might say, "Would they call Congress into session on Christmas day in a true emergency?"

I don't know.  Perhaps not.  But the Jewish New Year is not to Jews what Christmas is to Christians.

I come from the Reform Jewish tradition, the least formal regarding norms of adherence to ritual.  I know there are many Reform rabbis who, if a member of Congress approached them privately to seek their guidance on whether it would be permissible to not attend religious services in order to attend to pressing national business, would not hesitate to say yes.  Some might even say the member should do so.  

I believe, but may be incorrect on this, that there are Orthodox rabbis who would say this is not permissible for a Jew striving to be observant. 

I am sure there are Jews who frequent this site from the Conservative and Reconstructionist Jewish traditions who are well able to share the wisdom of these faith traditions as applied to this situation.

Trying to put myself in the place of a voter, if my Representative or Senator were Jewish and had a history of observing the holiday, I would like to think I would not take the member's observance of the holiday under these circumstances as a reason to vote against them in the next election.  This is, after all, a matter of individual conscience. 

There are practical questions were Pelosi and Reid to consider calling Congress back into session tomorrow or Wednesday.  If they believed that the absence of those members committed not to return until Thursday (from among both the 13 Jewish Senators and the 30 Jewish members of the House and non-Jewish members who have made plans to be back in their states or districts or elsewhere because the break was scheduled long ago) meant a bill could not pass, there would be no reason to call Congress back into session before then.

IF, and we can hope it doesn't come to this, but if the market starts heading far south, fast, tomorrow, I imagine there is going to be increasing pressure from citizens urging their members to do something.  

It seems possible that might cause some who voted no today to vote yes on a revote on the same proposal.  Or, some minor change(s) might be made to today's bill to try to give anxious members a way to say they didn't simply vote no and then yes to the identical bill within 24 or 48 hours in the face of constituent sentiment (heaven forbid they do something like that).   

I don't think I am paranoid or exaggerate the extent to which some of my fellow citizens do not particularly care for Jews, or, if they have never actually met someone they knew to be Jewish, what they perceive "Jewish people to be like." 

Still, if things go badly tomorrow and/or Wednesday in the markets, some may wonder whether Congress' unwillingness to consider coming back into session before Thursday to take action on account of a prior decision to shut down for the Jewish holiday was really necessary or the right thing to do under the circumstances. 

I can imagine some having thoughts along the lines of: "Well, the country is going to hell in a handbasket.  But Congress couldn't act because the Jews were celebrating their new year."   And worse than that, of course.

I haven't seen any indication Pelosi or Reid have held open the possibility of calling Congress back should the situation continue to deteriorate rapidly.  So I am pleased to be corrected if they have in fact done so.  I tried reaching someone by phone in Pelosi's office not long ago on the off chance someone might be there who would both be able to get an answer to the question and be available to pick up the phone.  But I got a recording saying they are closed for the day.

So go ahead.  Fire away.  I figure if anyone was going to raise this it had to be a Jew.