The letter that might get sent

Apparently the House of Representatives' email system has been brought to its knees by the deluge of email they're getting about the bailout. Pity, because I'd like to put in my tuppence. So here's more or less what I would (and might still) send:

Dear Congressman Frank,

I've been hearing reports that the emails about the bailout are running 100-1 against, so I figured it's worth being the 1. I'm not in your district, but I'm nearby (Burlington, MA), and wanted to voice a bit of support.

The current situation sucks, no question about it. The left is angry on moral grounds, the right is angry because they can't cope with the notion of the government being involved, and there's little political capital in being in the middle.

Nonetheless, I wanted to pass on my appreciation for what you're trying to accomplish here. *Something* clearly needs to be done to take some pressure off the markets, to keep them from simply collapsing, and while the proposed plan is certainly imperfect, it seems at least likely to provide that needed short-term relief. If followed by by longer-term regulatory reform, I can believe it (or some variation hammered out as a painful but functional compromise) could steer us through the rough waters. I'm not expecting miracles here, but something to get us past the immediate crisis would be very welcome.

So thank you for the hard effort and willingness to take some real political risk over this. I genuinely pray you can pull something together.

Sincerely,
Mark Waks
Cc: Rep. John Tierney

The letter that might get sent

Apparently the House of Representatives' email system has been brought to its knees by the deluge of email they're getting about the bailout. Pity, because I'd like to put in my tuppence. So here's more or less what I would (and might still) send:

Dear Congressman Frank,

I've been hearing reports that the emails about the bailout are running 100-1 against, so I figured it's worth being the 1. I'm not in your district, but I'm nearby (Burlington, MA), and wanted to voice a bit of support.

The current situation sucks, no question about it. The left is angry on moral grounds, the right is angry because they can't cope with the notion of the government being involved, and there's little political capital in being in the middle.

Nonetheless, I wanted to pass on my appreciation for what you're trying to accomplish here. *Something* clearly needs to be done to take some pressure off the markets, to keep them from simply collapsing, and while the proposed plan is certainly imperfect, it seems at least likely to provide that needed short-term relief. If followed by by longer-term regulatory reform, I can believe it (or some variation hammered out as a painful but functional compromise) could steer us through the rough waters. I'm not expecting miracles here, but something to get us past the immediate crisis would be very welcome.

So thank you for the hard effort and willingness to take some real political risk over this. I genuinely pray you can pull something together.

Sincerely,
Mark Waks
Cc: Rep. John Tierney