We won’t extend unemployment benefits but we will

Extend mortgage lifelines for a few of our closest buddies in the bizz baby. 

The plan, called Project Lifeline, will be announced Tuesday by the Treasury Department and the Department of Housing and Urban Development,

The participants are Bank of America Corp., Citigroup Inc., Countrywide Financial Corp., JPMorgan Chase & Co., Washington Mutual Inc. and Wells Fargo & Co. All six are involved in Hope Now, an effort the Bush administration brokered with the mortgage industry late last year to freeze rates on some high-cost subprime mortgages for five years to aid borrowers whose teaser rates are jumping sharply higher. Since then, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson has urged lenders to expand that effort to cover struggling homeowners with conventional mortgages.

Simply amazing.  Didn’t Bush call McCain a real conservative?