"The GAO's discouraging report makes clear that the Treasury Department's implementation of the TARP is insufficiently transparent and is not accountable to American taxpayers," House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said, referring to the acronym for the bailout program, officially known as the Troubled Asset Relief Program.

To use a backpacking analogy, a tarp is certainly not a tent. I've camped in both. A tent is weatherproof but under a tarp, you are at the mercy of the elements. The TARP program, so far, has not kept taxpayers dry, nor has it kept their tax dollars from washing away as Treasury fumbles through the bailout storm. Meanwhile, in The Hill, one of the papers that covers the Capitol, Alexander Bolton reports that Dems in awkward position over Citigroup bailout plan. That special plan (New York Times) is the latest in a series of random, arbitrary giveaways without adequate protection for taxpayer dollars. The story questions whether Citigroup's ties to the Obama administration, through Citi's Robert Rubin especially (he admits he pushed risky investments as a "non-line" senior officer of the bank), will dampen Congressional oversight enthusiasm. Let's hope not.