ATLANTA -- U.S. Sen. Saxby Chambliss said Tuesday that he would have voted for the massive financial bailout package the House narrowly rejected this week. He blamed Democrats and the Bush administration for the bill's defeat.

And Chambliss may get the chance to cast that vote. In a surprise move to resurrect Bush's $700 billion Wall Street rescue plan, Senate leaders late Tuesday called for a Wednesday vote on the measure.

Chambliss, who's running for re-election, said the economic crisis is already hitting home in Georgia. Several Atlanta bank officials have told him confidentially that they have stopped making automobile loans, he said.

"Doing nothing is not the answer," Chambliss said.

The first-term senator blasted Democrats for lacking the political muscle to push the $700 billion package through the House. That surprise vote sent the stock market tumbling to historic lows on Monday.

"You have to remember that this is a Democratic controlled House and Senate," he said. "It's incumbent upon their leadership to lead."

He leveled the partisan attack even though more Republicans than Democrats voted against the plan.

All seven of Georgia's House Republicans cast no votes on Monday. Two of Georgia's House Democrats -- Jim Marshall, of Macon, and Sanford Bishop, of Albany -- supported it.

Chambliss on Tuesday also accused the Bush administration of fumbling the plan's rollout, scaring people with a $700 billion price tag and making it sound like a rescue plan for Wall Street rather than Main Street. As a result, he said, lawmakers in Washington were met with an avalanche of opposition from angry constituents.

"Certainly, there has not been a very good PR campaign on the part of the administration," he said.

"The fact is that they didn't do a very good job of convincing people that this was the right direction."

Chambliss has traditionally been a solid ally of Bush, but has been distancing himself from the president as he runs for re-election.

In his most extensive comments yet on the economic bailout that has preoccupied Capitol Hill, Chambliss said the initial plan unveiled by Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson was unacceptable because it was little more than "a $700 billion blank check."

He said the current version provides the money in installments and provides safeguards against things like excessive executive compensation.

"Are there ways to improve it? You bet," Chambliss said. "But I think this bill answers the critics and answers the crisis that we've got in America today in our financial system."

Chambliss faces Democrat Jim Martin and Libertarian Allen Buckley in November.

Martin said Monday he would not support the current bailout bill that came before the House because it lacked enough consumer safeguards and regulatory oversight. He accused Chambliss of helping to create the current economic mess by supporting lax oversight of the financial industry.

Chambliss dismissed that on Tuesday as political gamesmanship.