Whose Washington Crowd to blame?

One of the folks at the University asks "at what point did the Washington Crowd - which I have to assume means the Republican Party, since last I checked they held the Office of President for the past 8 years, and the Congress for 14 or the last 16 years (recall Newt Gingrich and Republican "take-over" of Congress back in 1994?) - at what point did they quit being the party of Main Street, and become the party of Wall Street?"

My answers would be:
1) starting in about 2004. Many of us who consider ourselves "Porkbusters" figure the "outside reformer" Republicans elected to Congress in 1994 became indistinguishable from the corrupt porkers they were elected to replace after about a decade in DC. Though many DC Republicans still pretend not to believe it, that corruption had a lot to do with their being routed in the 2006 elections (not that Democrats proved any less fond of pork.) John McCain's continuing reputation as a small government fiscal conservative is a big reason traditional Republicans support him (despite differences with him on other issues) over anyone else from the DC establishment this year.

2) My impression is that Wall Streeters are at least as likely to be throwing money at Democrats as Republicans. One of the interesting things about the current crisis on Wall Street is how hard it is proving for the usual suspects to howl about evil Capitalists due to their own involvement via campaign contributions, advisors, etc.

It may be that Republicans are no longer the party of Main street. It's certainly also true that they are no longer the party of the rich.

3) Personally, I think the problem may be with DC itself - full of unelected bureaucrats and lobbyists whose behavior changes remarkably little as which party is in power changes. A book I once read by Hugh Hewitt "In but not of" suggests most of the power in this country is concentrated in three cities: New York for money, Washington DC for law, and Los Angeles for culture. I remember thinking as I read those words, that we might be better off without all three.

4) In short, I'm not interested in trying to blame this on one party. Rather, I merely want to ensure there is a market solution to this market problem. I don't mind if the Federal Reserve facilitates things, as happened last week, but will very much mind if our government ends up using my money to bail out everyone who placed bad bets on the economy, just as I will mind if all the corrupt politicians whose greed led them to fail in their role of fiscal oversight survive the current crisis.