Dole slams Bush's plan; Burr says deal is near

WASHINGTON -- Sen. Elizabeth Dole came out against President Bush's Wall Street rescue plan Friday, citing the hang-ups the president had in trying to work out a deal with Congress and get fellow Republicans on board.

"It violates every principle of American capitalism and free enterprise that I have been taught and that our country has always held," said Dole, a Salisbury, N.C., Republican who is in a tough re-election battle.

Lawmakers spent Friday trying to hash out a replacement for the $700 billion plan sent by Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Federal Reserve Board Chairman Ben Bernanke a week ago.

Widespread displeasure from the public -- sour that typical Americans are losing homes to foreclosure while investment banks likely would be propped up -- penetrated Congress.

Dole said North Carolinians don't approve of a bailout.

"Like these folks, I put my faith in our people before our government, and in free enterprise, with appropriate regulation and oversight, before nationalized control of our economy," she said.

Dole's opponent, state Sen. Kay Hagan, a Greensboro Democrat, accused her of being late to take a position on Bush's plan.

"It took her a week to figure out that the Bush administration's Wall Street giveaway was insulting to working families and others who did nothing but work hard and try to make a better life for themselves and their families?" Hagan spokeswoman Colleen Flanagan said.

"She needed to hear from experts about how absurd it is that George Bush wants to give billions of unregulated dollars to the very same people who got us into this mess through a lack of regulation in the first place?"

Republicans in particular were upset about having to forgo their "free market" labels to vote for a massive government intervention in the financial services industry.

"We can provide the needed support to the markets while maintaining our duty to the American taxpayer and ensure those who made serious mistakes are not rewarded," said Rep. Patrick McHenry, a Republican from Cherryville, who didn't sign on to the administration's plan but pushed negotiators to incorporate a GOP proposal that would use private capital instead of tax dollars for the bailout.

But Sen. Richard Burr, a Winston-Salem Republican, said he thought an agreement was near with House Republicans.

"They understand this is not as prescriptive as what they first envisioned, and in this design there is very much a marketplace at play, versus a takeover or bailout," said Burr, who supports an immediate intervention by the government to prevent a massive failure of the banking system.