Senate Sweeteners to the Bailout

In time-honored tradition, lawmakers are strengthening the financial rescue plan to insure Senate passage tonight by adding such crowd-pleasers as raising FDIC insurance on bank accounts from $100,000 to $250,000, adding renewable energy tax incentives and offering relief from the Alternative Minimum Tax.

Of all the incentives to placate angry taxpayers, the most intriguing is a "Mental Health Parity" provision that would require health insurance companies to cover mental illness at the same level as physical illness. Judging from their performance over the past week, this might be seen as more beneficial to the members of Congress than the voters.

With delicacy of feeling, the Senate is not convening to do this work until after sundown, the end of observance of the Jewish New Year.

The last time such sensitivity was shown came in the 1950s when federal officials scheduled the execution of Ethel and Julius Rosenberg for spying before sundown on a Friday to avoid killing them on the Jewish Sabbath.

Let's hope the outcome this time will not be as lethal.

Keeping Faith

Sen. John McCain is suspending his campaign for the next two days to observe Rosh Hoshonna with his friend, Sen. Joe Lieberman, by attending services in Miami to offer up prayers for the people of Israel and the Wall Street victims of Lehman Brothers and Goldman Sachs.

Former President Bill Clinton, who had previously announced he would not be campaigning for Barack Obama until after the Jewish holidays, commented on entering a synagogue in Chappaqua with his wife, "Hillary represents more people of the Hebrew faith than any other Senator and was honored in the recent primaries by more votes than any other candidate from Jewish women, who have started a web site, 'MazelTov2012.com' on her behalf."

Sen. Barack Obama responded by pointing out that, although he would be non-observant today, he is supported by millions of small contributions from young people with Jewish surnames and that David Axelrod is running a kosher campaign on his behalf.

No word as yet on which candidates will be fasting for Yom Kippur next week.