Support our plan or we'll kill this dog

Perhaps I've just seen too many movies over the years about mobsters, and watched too many episodes of The Sopranos, but it seems to me that the Republicans' attempts to cram the bankruptcy bill and Social Security piratization (sic) down our throats have a certain desperation about them. They don't care if there's public support for these "reforms" or not; there are promises to keep. In the case of dismantling Social Security, it's the investment companies (for all that they shrug their shoulders and say, "Who, me?"), and in the case of the bankruptcy bill, it's the credit card companies (with some overlap between the two).

The concept of what serves their constituents, which SHOULD be the American people, is completely outside of all discussion.

It almost seems as if this isn't just a case of "I promised the industry I'd do this in return for that fat campaign contribution"; it's more like "The industry will break my kneecaps if I don't deliver."

I wonder if perhaps industry bigwigs are threatening to spill the beans about official corruption if they don't get what they want? And THAT'S what's scaring the Republicans into delivering these plans to screw over the voters.