The idea that Democrats and Republicans might come together to see what the government can do to prop up what increasingly is looking like a tanking economy is dissipating quickly, with fingers pointing in all directions.

Nationally, presidential candidate John McCain blamed opponent Barack Obama for Congressional failure to pass a bill today, and House Republicans were upset at what they perceived was a partisan speech by House speaker Nancy Pelosi prior to the vote.

El Paso's congressman, Democrat Silvestre Reyes, said he thinks that the dramatic events Monday will change some minds. The stock market dropped more than 700 points, 500 in the minutes following the "no" vote in the House.

"I think a lot of those guys who didn’t vote for it after seeing the reaction of the stock market are probably asking themselves why they didn’t support it," Reyes said.

He blamed Republicans for playing politics. Two-thirds of Democrats voted to for it, as did one-third of Republicans.

"It was kind of interesting that the Republicans didn’t want to vote for it after they had been part of the process that created it by going along with the Bush administration, by going along with getting rid of the regulations … now we come full circle and are in a serious financial crisis nationally and they refuse to vote for this legislation after they had been part of the process in developing it," he said.

"I thought that was unconscionable."

When reminded that one of the elements of deregulation, the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act of 1999, was signed by President Clinton, Reyes said that "this was during a time after Republicans had taken control of Congress. At some point Republicans are going to have to stop blaming President Clinton for everything they can pile on, and be accountable for their own lack of initiative in oversight. President Clinton did not get us into Iraq, he won't be part of the $1 trillion Iraq is leaving us accountable for. The Gramm (deregulation) may account for another trillion."

Responding to McCain's criticism that Obama did not show leadership in the crisis atmosphere and negotiations last week, Reyes said McCain made things worse.

"First, McCain can't decide what to do. He suspends his campaign, then decides to restart it even though he didn’t really suspend it -- he didn’t shut any offices or stop any commercials. On the flip side of that we have Sen. Obama participating through calls and briefings on the situation," Reyes said. "Remember it was Sen. Obama who initiated the call that morning to Sen. McCain stating 'why don’t we issue a joint statement of principles?' The response from McCain was to call a press conference to announce he was suspending his campaign, which he didn't, and the rest is history.

"The deal was pretty much on track to get done … McCain decides to interject himself in that process, his presence empowers the House Republicans, and they all rear up and walk out. So effectively what he did was set it back," Reyes said.

That has led to a power struggle amongst Republicans in the House, Reyes said.

"Interestingly enough, now that he did that, now the Republicans are embroiled in an internal leadership struggle between (Rep. Michael) Pence (R-Ind) and (Virginia Rep. Eric) Cantor to take out (Missouri Rep. Roy) Blunt and (Ohio Rep. John) Boehner," Reyes said. "All these things are interplaying."

Not all Democrats were in favor of the bill. Rep. Ciro Rodriguez, whose district mostly is in San Antonio but who represents a part of east El Paso County, issued a statement Monday explaining his "no" vote.

“I could not in good conscience support a blank check to those who were irresponsible and got us in this position in the first place,” said Rodriguez in the statement. “While an improvement from the original proposal, I believe this new bill did not go far enough to ensure taxpayers are protected and that this would not happen to us again. It is my hope that we can move swiftly ahead to forge a bipartisan agreement that will help to fix our ailing economy."

Rodriguez specified his reasons for opposing the bill, including lack of ability for a Congressional oversight board to stop any actions, lack of mortgage relief for homeowners, the potential for foreign investors to receive billions in relief, the speed at which the $700 billion would be spent (before a new administration), continued high salaries for corporate CEOs.

But Reyes said while not perfect, the bill addressed some of those issues, and will help prevent a catastrophic crash, something hinted at by market activity Monday.

"When people see the reaction of the stock market after we didn’t pass this, I think people will understand there are pensions riding on this, 401 Ks, companies that need credit to meet payroll, all of that can be jeopardized if we don’t move on with this thing," he said.

Reyes said that he thinks the issue will back to the House later in the week, and that the Senate will proceed with a planned vote on Wednesday.

"It appears we may see that opportunity, probably Thursday, but I am confident we'll vote this issue this week sometime," he said.