Alabama Senator Leads GOP Charge Against Bailout

Republican Alabama Sen. Richard Shelby is proving to be one of the toughest opponents of the Treasury Department's proposed bailout of financial firms, the Wall Street Journal reports. The ranking member of the Senate Banking Committee is leading the charge against the plan by Republicans who view it as a sellout of conservative principles.

Shelby is no stranger to bucking his own party. He quit the Democrats for the GOP in 1994 after a clash over Bill Clinton's tax increases. He put Treasury head Henry Paulson on the spot during Senate questioning of the bailout plan yesterday.  "You assume it will work," he said. "But you can't assure us that it's going to work, because you thought some of the other plans were going to work." (More bailout stories.)