House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is telling Democrats that she will not support President Bush’s $700 billion bailout of the financial sector unless there is significant Republican support for the controversial plan.

The politics of the bailout are tricky and dangerous for both political parties, particularly since it comes weeks before the presidential and congressional elections.

Pelosi made this scenario clear at a lengthy closed-door meeting of House Democrats on Tuesday. Many of those present said they took Pelosi’s message to mean that a “majority of the minority” needs to support the bill before she will bring it to the floor.

To get that kind of support, President Bush needs to go on television to speak directly to the public, and get on the phone to rally his fellow Republicans, said House Majority Whip James Clyburn (D-S.C.).

“If it’s a crisis,” Clyburn said in a statement, “and we all need to come together, then as leader of this nation, the president needs to take the lead and bring the country together.”

In the Senate, Republicans have also lined up to oppose their president’s bill, which led Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) to worry that he may not have enough Republican votes to pass the package.

“We need Republican votes to help us,” he said. “This is a Republican package and we need Republican votes.”

Several GOP senators voiced frustration over the plan during a Banking panel hearing at which Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson urged members of both parties to approve the package quickly.

Sen. Elizabeth Dole (N.C.) echoed other GOP panel members when she said she was “very skeptical of this proposal and extremely frustrated that we find ourselves in this position.”

Reid said that his Democratic colleagues told him that as of Tuesday only one Republican on the Banking Committee could be counted on to vote for the bailout.

As House and Senate members continued to pick at the package even as they fought over who should own it, markets on Wall Street continued to fall amid the uncertainty over when Congress will act and what form the financial bailout package will take. The Dow Jones industrial closed down 161 points on Tuesday after a 372-point drop on Monday.

Rep. Jim Moran (D-Va.) said after Tuesday’s Democratic Caucus meeting that it will take 130 to 140 Republican votes to get the bill passed. “They’re going to have to take ownership,” Moran said.

“Ownership” was the word of the day Tuesday, as in, “Who’s going to own this bailout package if it fails?” or if it works and voters remain furious at seeing investment bankers on the public dole.

There’s also the question of who has “ownership” of the faltering economy. And so far, nobody seems to want to own either one.

Democrats say Republicans own the chaos on Wall Street because the GOP spent the last seven years dismantling the regulatory apparatus of the federal government, assuring everyone it would be best for the economy. And now, says Rep. Dennis Cardoza (D-Calif.), “They want total carte blanche.”

So, the thinking goes, Republicans had better take ownership of the bailout package. After Democrats put their priorities in it.

Some Democrats say Bush should not only push for the bailout, he should apologize for gutting the regulation they say could have prevented the crisis.

“The president does owe the nation an explanation and an apology,” said Rep. Carol Shea-Porter (D-N.H.).

Republicans, for their part, say it’s time for Democrats to acknowledge that they run Congress.