Talk about ungrateful. Within an hour of President George Bush signing the historic $700 billion bailout of Wall Street into law Friday, the Dow Jones ended the day down 157 points.

And that's when Bush offered something he'd neglected to tell us during the past two weeks of White House-created hysteria: "Americans should also expect that it will take some time for this legislation to have its full impact on our economy."

Thanks for telling the American people that before the voting took place. And never mind that most of us did not indicate any support for rewarding greedy risks gone bad, granting unfettered power to unelected officials, ballooning an already out-of-control national debt or moving toward socialism with regards to the financial industry.

But the lame-duck president's persuasive scare tactics -- plus the $152 billion in unrelated tax breaks and sundry add-ons -- was enough to convince 263 House members and 74 senators to pass the measure.

As of Friday afternoon, the bailout is official. It's law.

And yet the Dow fell 157 points. The Standard & Poor's 500 index fell 15.05. The Nasdaq composite index fell 29.33.

"Our economy continues to face serious challenges," was Bush's response.

No kidding. And not one of them was solved by the massive bailout. We believe, on the contrary, this bailout will add to the long list of serious challenges.

Yet there were only 195 members of Congress who recognized this. Fortunately for Kansas, five of those members represent us. Sens. Pat Roberts and Sam Brownback along with Reps. Jerry Moran, Nancy Boyda and Todd Tiahrt all voted against the measure. Only Rep. Dennis Moore fell victim to the herd mentality running rampant in our nation's capital this past week.

"Kansans who have worked hard and lived within their means should not have their hard-earned dollars used to bail out financial firms that made risky financial decisions," Roberts said.

Moran offered more pointed comments: "It is irresponsible to further increase our country's already crippling debt -- to $11.3 trillion -- to achieve a temporary and uncertain fix today. We can continue to spend recklessly, or face the problem head-on to create a better world not only for ourselves but for future generations."

We applaud the sanity, fiscal responsibility and independence of five of our six national lawmakers. While we all will suffer the consequences of what now is law, it won't be because our own legislators didn't go to bat for us. Their hands are clean.

The dirty hands still are wreaking havoc on the markets. The Dow went down 157 points -- after the bailout was signed into law. We can't wait to see what other problems President Bush will solve before he leaves office in 107 days.

Editorial by Patrick Lowry

plowry@dailynews.net