Opinion: Unemployment benefits expiring this week. Main Street left in the lurch

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Barack Obama supporters have infiltrated the Senate’s Republican bloc.

That’s the only explanation possible for why Republicans balked at extending benefits last week for unemployed workers, even though they went along with a bailout for the financial industry. These red-state Obamaphiles know the country’s economic woes are endangering John McCain’s chances and they want Obama to win the election.

Just as the McCain/Palin ticket is making a dash to the presidential finish line, its putative supporters create this scenario: 800,000 people who already are struggling to pay the rent or stave off foreclosure, hang on to health care and feed their kids, lose the last shred of help from the federal government. All because of Republican opposition in the Senate. Coincidence? I think not!

Of course the Senate can (and should) revisit the issue when it reconvenes next month -- after the election. And I bet it will ... when it’s too late to help McCain become president. But all exaggeration aside, it’s not McCain who needs the help. According to the U.S. Dept. of Labor, 9.5 million Americans are out of work, and almost 6.1 million are making do with part-time jobs because they can’t find full-time jobs.

More details about the non-vote to extend benefits here, on Pro Publica.