"This Sucker Could Go Down" Update: A Democratic Alternative

House Democrats who voted against the bailout are throwing a new bill into the mix. A diverse lot of lawmakers led by Rep. Pete DeFazio want to give the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. more latitude to deal with bank failures, just as the FDIC efficiently negotiated the takeovers of Washington Mutual and Wachovia.

It would also suspend "fair value accounting," which could, in theory, stabilize prices and impose a securities tax equal to one fourth of one percent of profits.

The ideas were first introduced by former FDIC chairman William M. Isaac in Friday's Washington Post.

Cosponsors of the legislation include Rep. Rush Holt, Rep. Donna Edwards, Rep. Mazie Hirono, Rep. Marcy Captur and Rep. Elijah Cummings.

Among those making calls on the bill's behalf will be Andrew Stern, president of the country's largest and most powerful labor union, the SEIU.  And OpenLeft, a key liberal activist site, is already whipping support for it.