Now the Democrats are on their own path to failure as no Republican in House votes for stimulus plan with little immediate impact

The political cover that President "I screwed up" wanted for his economic stimulus plan and incompetency did not show up today as every House Republican voted against his wishes in a much anticipated floor vote.

And rightly so. The plan offers little in immediate impact. The only good thing about it is the extension in unemployment benefits and help with health care COBRAs of laid off workers.

But those needs only account for a fraction of the spending.

Obama will probably get three GOP votes in the Senate later today. But that will not be enough for him to run under the banner of being bipartisan. This plan was initially crafted in the House by only Democrats, setting it on the wrong path from the beginning. And Obama endorsed that ridiculous plan with more Christmas tree goodies than the massive fir at Rockefeller Center.

The plan was supposed to be about jobs, jobs, jobs. It is not.

That's tragic considering these numbers reported today by The New York Times:

The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported on Friday that employers laid off a record 508,859 workers in the fourth quarter of 2008 in what the bureau calls extended mass layoff events — layoffs involving 50 or more workers for at least 31 days.

That is by far the highest number involved in mass layoffs since the bureau began collecting that data in 1995. The fourth-quarter number represents a 69 percent increase over the 301,592 workers involved in extended mass layoffs in the fourth quarter of 2007.

The stock market has been demoralized by the failure of Obama's secretary of treasury -- another prominent Democrat who couldn't pay his taxes on time -- to provide promised specifics on bailing out the nation's banks.

In the end, Obama is going to get his stimulus plan. But he'll have to sign it without any political cover. And the American people will be able to center all the anger at him and his fellow Democrats for failing to turn things around when they promised change and hope.