IMF Spooks GOP Nativists

When Thai lobbyists arrive in Washington Wednesday to drum up support for a bailout from the International Monetary Fund, they'll be walking in the shadow of the black helicopters. TIME Capitol Hill correspondent James Carney says congressional watchdogs against the "New World Order" are painting the IMF as their latest villain.

Resistance on the Hill has jeopardized the proposed $20 billion U.S. contribution to the IMF Asian bailout. Big Labor Democrats and traditional Republicans such as Newt Gingrich are on board, says Carney. "But there's a deepening nativist strain in the GOP, best characterized by someone like Pat Buchanan. They don't like explaining at home why the U.S. is spending billions to bail out some South Korean bank halfway around the world."

Never mind that the IMF functions as a U.S.-driven-body that tends to open up foreign markets to U.S. companies. Here's an easy-to-understand reason to support it: The bailout would prop up Mom-and-Pop mutual funds which stand to lose millions in an Asian collapse.