Oof, last night on Larry King, Nixon speechwriter and gameshow host Ben Stein decried Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson's "haughty contemptuous attitude" and called Wall Street's recent behavior "the worst job in the history of management of any enterprise." And New York Times columnist Paul Krugman agreed regarding the bailout: "this was a horrible plan a week ago and it was made not totally horrible by the changes." Plus: "We're a Banana Republic with nukes." Yet both agree that the bailout should be passed! Stein was particularly peeved that Congress is taking Rosh Hashanah off work: "Nonsense! We don't have a state with an established religion and if we did it certainly wouldn't be Judaism." Why, wonders Larry, doesn't George Bush have any clout? "Who believes him anymore?" said Krugman. "There's been too many lies in this White House."

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