Our system worked today. The majority of the House of Representatives -- which was always intended to be the branch most responsive to the will of the people -- rejected what would have been a massive and disasterous government bailout.

I'm happy to say that I was wrong. Last week when I read about Paulson's initial proposal for the bailout, I thought that the backing of the White House and the leaders of both parties, coupled with an atmosphere of fear and the need to "do something quickly," would be more than enough to push it through. Instead, a coalition of far-left Democrats and the few remaining free-market Republicans, joined by many members of both parties worried about losing their seats in the upcoming elections, defeated the bill and came out victorious.

My gut still says the bill will resurface and will probably be passed, in some form or another. But today we won, and tomorrow, I'll be quite happy to be wrong again.