Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson hit the Sunday morning show circuit with gusto to sell the administration's massive wall street bailout plan. 

His basic message:  If Congress doesn't authorize the government to purchase upwards of $500 billion in toxic loans from financial institutions that are teetering on collapse, it could plunge the world economy into a sustained depression.

It was sobering and frank language from hammerin Hank, and was meant to put the Congress on notice:  don't screw around with this; don't lard up this bailout package with partisan add-ons and pork; don't put your petty Congressional interests ahead of the nation's.

Nobody likes the idea of a trillion dollar bailout.  It stinks, plain and simple.  And it's fair game for Congress to demand tough oversight and executive compensation provisions, and perhaps tinker with the bankruptcy laws to help struggling homeowners.  

But I hope Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid don't overplay their hands and snuff out this bailout.  As Paulson noted this morning, we're not out of the woods yet; the credit markets remain essentially frozen, and without government funds we're only days away from a total meltdown. 

Both Pelosi and Reid made noise today about not handing a "blank check" to Paulson.  Fine.  But don't screw this up.  They're playing with fire if they derail this bailout with their typical Congressional shennanigans.  And it could impact the election.