Note to Main Street: Congress LOVES you

[October 04, 2008]  WASHINGTON (AP) -- Note to Main Street: Congress loves you.

A cliche meltdown is happening on Capitol Hill as lawmakers try to explain to average Americans the mess they're in from the financial crisis.

Average Americans being, "Mr. and Mrs. Jones" ... who live, of course, on "Main Street."

Never mind that the Smiths, Johnsons, Williamses and Browns (in order, the most common last names in America) have abandoned the neighborhoods around many Main Streets for the burbs. Lawmakers trying to persuade constituents that the $700 billion financial bailout they passed Friday is good for them cannot say too often that they are acting in the interest of Main Street not Wall Street.

More than a dozen lawmakers from both parties did so Friday alone. There wasn't a suburban Hawthorne Terrace in Sun Valley Estates to be found.

Nor a Second Street, long the most common street name in America.

"We must win it for Mr. and Mrs. Jones on Main Street," said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Earlier, she said: "While the focus has been on the Dow Jones and Wall Street, we are addressing the real pain felt by Mr. and Mrs. Jones on Main Street."

In this situation, every figure of speech becomes a figure in speeches.

While Pelosi keeps up with the Joneses and Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin hoists a rhetorical brew to "Joe Six Pack" and "Main Streeters like me," others in the body politic are talking about the body economic. They invoke various medical procedures.

There's blood: "I must do everything that I can to stop this bleeding," said Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Calif.

And more blood: "We must pass this legislation in order to stop the hemorrhaging," said Rep. Jim Clyburn, D-S.C.

And an ambulance squad: "We have the EMT function," said Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass. "There's an emergency and we have to avert serious harm."

To be followed with something more lasting than a Band-Aid solution: "We will be back next year to do some serious surgery," Franks added.

With a precision instrument: "You need a scalpel," said Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama.

He said rival John McCain is "using a hatchet."

[Associated Press; BY CALVIN WOODWARD and ANN SANNER]

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