Once again, as in the run-up to the invasion of Iraq, fear is an ally in the Bush administration's response to the most serious American financial crisis since the Great Depression.

More than five years ago, President Bush played on public fears, warning erroneously of an attack by weapons of mass destruction, to rally support for his war of choice. This time, the collapse of pillars of the financial world offers stronger evidence of peril, but the rush to judgment is the same.

Remembrance of the first fear-driven stampede may be a factor in some congressional minds, however, as the initial wide embrace for the massive governmental bailout has begun to drag. Many conservative Republicans as well as Democrats are calling for caveats that would provide taxpayer protections.

Both the wisdom and equity are being questioned of a federal rescue for the banking bigwigs who perpetrated the horrendous mess while leaving average Americans holding a colossal bag of national debt. The result is a pushing back for extracting some price from the culprits for what they have fathered.

The most pointed response has come from Chairman Barney Frank of the House Financial Services Committee. He has demanded that any salvage package include harpooning the outrageous golden parachutes for responsible executives as they go out the door of investment houses being bailed out by the feds.

Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, himself the CEO of Goldman Sachs before becoming Bush's point man on the bailout, met the proposal by labeling it a "punitive" threat to corporate cooperation, throwing a monkey wrench into the imperative for swift federal action.

The notion of detouring the gravy train for CEOs may not play well on Wall Street, but it shouts of simple justice on Main Street. Whenever the fat cats of industry have their tails twisted in this manner, wails that the Democrats are conducting "class warfare" are predictable. But the lament wears thin as lower- and middle-class taxpayers continue to take it in the neck for the consequences of the irresponsibility of the rich.

Even Republican presidential nominee John McCain has joined the attack on the golden parachute, saying no executive whose company is involved in the bailout should make more than the nation's chief executive, who gets $400,000 a year.

The Paulson approach to the crisis, backed by Bush, seems to be massive bailout first and worry about congressional oversight and financial reorganization later. But some conservative Republicans in Congress are putting the dreaded "socialism" label on the notion of government intrusion into the free market system, joining the Democrats in second thoughts about joining the stampede.

Politically, many Democrats quickly came to the realization that they had some cards to play amid the near-panic that washed over Capitol Hill in the first manifestations of the financial industry's implosion. In the House, their leaders have served notice that they won't be deterred by the crisis from pressing on with their own efforts to look out for Main Street as a price for the life preserver to Wall Street.

They have said they will continue their pursuit of a second stimulus package to taxpayers, pushed by Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama, as well as extending unemployment benefits for another 13 weeks, and providing loan guarantees to the auto industry to boost development of hybrid cars.

All these add-ons could imperil quick passage of the $700 billion financial industry bailout, which Paulson has warned is imperative to avoid a much worse meltdown on Wall Street. If the bailout is held up by Democratic demands, there could be a negative fallout against the party in the approaching presidential and congressional elections.

But the Democrats won't let voters forget that the whole crisis has occurred on George W. Bush's watch, no matter how low a profile he attempts to maintain in his administration's efforts to cope with it. The Republican Party has remained the party of big business too long in the public mind for the current financial mayhem not to constitute a major peril for its fall candidates. John McCain particularly has to worry, for all the distance he seeks to put between himself, Bush and the beleaguered GOP.

Jules Witcover's latest book, on the Nixon-Agnew relationship, "Very Strange Bedfellows," has just been published by Public Affairs Press. Reach him at juleswitcover@earthlink.net.