In 1989, the nation faced a financial crisis caused by the collapse of hundreds of savings and loan associations.

Fearing both the size of the bill if the troubled institutions went under and the damage such a meltdown might cause to the economy at large, Congress and President George H.W. Bush in 1989, after nine years of conservative rule, created the Resolution Trust Corporation to take over troubled thrifts, as the banks were known.

The current attempt to bailout the nation's financial system mirrors these actions of less than two decades ago. It would seem that bailouts are a natural corollary to the conservative ideology of small government and subsequent policies of deregulation.

Why has no one in the press pointed out this common and obvious consequence of failed conservative economic policy we see at the end of these two eras of conservative rule? Have we become so cowed by the conservative's McCarthyistic "liberal bias" mantra that we no longer have the courage to stand up to them?

How many more times will this have to happen before middle class conservatives wake up and smell the rotting fish? R. G. O'Dea Moorpark