Oct. 1--Now that Washington lawmakers have made their point, it's time for them to do their duty: Vote to fix the financial crisis or push to get a new fixer.

A peculiar combination of liberal Democrats and hard-line conservatives shocked the world Monday, when they rejected a $700 billion government plan to buy bad debt, free up the credit markets and rescue the economy.

They offered valid, if conflicting, objections to the bill. It didn't do much for strapped homeowners, whose failing mortgages are the root cause of the crisis. It would have bailed out some companies that created the mess in the first place, which angers voters to no end. And the bill represented an enormous intrusion of government into the marketplace -- and this just five weeks before a new president is elected.

Those explanations didn't prevent a Wall Street swoon Monday, although stocks recovered more than half their losses the next day. Investors are betting heavily that politicians will see the light -- or maybe the darkness ahead -- and do the right thing.

What to do? They can't know for sure whether a record government rescue is the only way to prevent a financial disaster. Or whether the economy has the resilience to absorb the shock on its own and heal quickly.

Supporters and opponents both have bright economists on their side.

My take is that lawmakers have to back the generals on the ground -- in this case, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke -- or else fire the generals.

Bernanke is a leading scholar on the Great Depression, which should serve him well in trying to stave off a disaster. Paulson is the former chief executive of Goldman Sachs, so he understands how the complex credit markets have been rattled to their core.

They seem like ideal advisers, loath to drag in government. Lawmakers often emerge from briefings with a new resolve to act.

Like banking itself, this is largely a confidence game. If Congress doesn't have confidence in Paulson and Bernanke, it shouldn't back their rescue. That would be throwing good money after bad.

But lawmakers can't just abdicate, not with the stock market whipsawing the public, and banks going down every few days.

Ultimately, they have to listen to their appointed financial leaders or else appoint somebody worth listening to.

That doesn't mean they can't improve the bailout bill.