Congressional deal makers reached an agreement on the stimulus — or maybe not. There’s a deal in there somewhere so there’s no suspense really. (Other than how messed up the Democrats can be in rolling out a stimulus plan that they had exclusive control over. Imagine if they had a viable opposition.) With these secret deals hatched by one party it’s always hard to tell. When Tom Harkin complains about the process you know it’s bad.

Meanwhile Robert Gibbs declares it is no big deal that the markets crashed on the Geithner bank rollout plan. But really, what’s he going to say? (“We thought they’d fall for a half-baked idea”?)

Republican Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood let the cat out of the bag, explaining that the GOP House members “like to be in the room when these things are put together. And they haven’t been. And so I think they were a bit offended by that.” Imagine that.

Both these events suggest that indeed some transparency would be a good idea. Maybe posting legislation on the Internet like they promised would relieve confusion about what’s in it. A “vague” bank rollout is not a good thing, perhaps, when the markets are screaming for clarity.

I can’t help but think candidate Obama would be appalled by all this.