WASHINGTON — Now Nancy Pelosi will get a second chance.

After the Senate voted 74-25 yesterday to approve a historic $700 billion bailout of the nation's financial industry, the focus will move to the Democratic House speaker from San Francisco.

With a House vote coming as soon as tomorrow, she will face the toughest test of her two-year leadership tenure as she tries to convince skeptical colleagues to approve the largest financial bailout in U.S. history.

On Monday, Pelosi came under excoriating attack from Republicans, who blamed her for the House's rejection of the bailout.

House Minority Leader John Boehner of Ohio said Pelosi "poisoned" Republicans and caused many of them to "go south" when she called the bailout a response to President Bush's "failed economic policies — policies built on budgetary recklessness, on an anything-goes mentality, with no regulation, no supervision, and no discipline in the system."

Republicans have used the 68-year-old Pelosi as their whipping boy all year long, first blaming her for $4-a-gallon gasoline, now suggesting she's responsible for Congress' failure to react quickly enough to the nation's fiscal calamities.

Democrats have been busy defending their embattled leader.

"I am appalled," said Democratic Rep. Barney Frank of Massachusetts, the chairman of the House Financial Services Committee and a leading architect of the bailout. He said House GOP leaders blamed Pelosi for their troubles because they couldn't get enough rank-and-file Republicans to back the bailout.

"I think they are covering up the embarrassment of not having the votes," he said.

Pelosi has no regrets about what she said, her spokesman said yesterday.

"Her remarks are what she had been saying all week," said Drew Hammill, her spokesman. "Part of being able to deal with this crisis is realizing how we got here. And her speech reflected the widely held Democratic view that the Bush administration's economic policies and their failure have contributed to what we face today."

House Democratic aides noted that even some Republicans were defending Pelosi.

After Monday's stunning outcome, congressional leaders declined to speculate what will happen when the House votes again.

Majority Leader Steny Hoyer of Maryland said the House will be back in session today and that "Democrats are continuing to work around the clock in a bipartisan way" to get the bailout passed.

"Members of the House leadership on both sides of the aisle are talking to our colleagues," he said.