According to the Constitution, all appropriations bills must originate in the House of Representatives. So what was Harry Reid to do, with the House out of session and faced with the need to immediately give Wall Street $700 billion?

What he did was dig up an appropriations bill that had originated in the House and then been sent over to the Senate, where it bogged down. This happened IN 2002. Moreover, the Senate version had been co-sponsored BY PAUL WELLSTONE.

Of course, Wellstone never wrote a bill bailing out Wall Street. So Reid just gutted the bill and added that part. But Wellstone's name is still on it, on page 263 (pdf). It's like the world's investment bankers dug up Wellstone so they could punch him in the face one more time.