President Bush to Congress: We are at a 'critical moment'

For the second morning in a row, President Bush went on live TV to try to exert the dwindling political authority of his White House and persuade the denizens of Capitol Hill that they must act -- positively -- on a plan to rescue the economy.

For Wall Street, the message was the same as on Monday: Help is on the way.

His rhetoric was strong -- but his expression, captured by Associated Press photographer Charles Dharapak -- suggested more than a bit of doubt. Indeed, it suggested he knew he was out on a shaky limb.

Using the sort of urgent language that leaves a president little room to maneuver if his warnings are not heeded, Bush said the nation’s economy was facing a “critical moment” and that without a legislative rescue “the consequences will grow worse each day.”

“Congress must act,” he said. “Our economy is depending on decisive action from the government.”

Speaking one day after the House rejected the $700-billion bailout plan crafted over the weekend, the president had a major challenge on his hands. While negotiations resume today on Capitol Hill as congressional leaders and the administration try to find a way out of the mess, the next crucial vote will be on Wall Street.

Will the market continue the seeming free fall with which it ended Monday?

Will the president's words, hardly soothing, be enough to persuade recalcitrant Republicans that they must get on board?

Or will the loss of credibility he has come to suffer in the final months -- and even years -- of his administration haunt the president all the way through Jan. 20, 2009 (and beyond), at the cost of the immediate action he is demanding from his place far out on a White House limb?

For more coverage, read  "Bush Warns of 'Painful' Consequences if Bailout Rejected" at latimes.com.

-- James Gerstenzang

Photo: Charles Dharapak / Associated Press