They Call It Recapitalization

and suddenly it's news, a week after the bailout bill passed the House with none to little attention paid to the provision.
I can't help it, once a reporter, always a reporter. How did this provision escape the attention of everybody but NPR and Justin Fox's blogs? Is there some sort of unwritten agreement to keep the plan to nationalize the counry's banks — socialism, folks —under the radar as long as possible?
This is from an AP story I can no longer find:

An administration official, who spoke late Tuesday on condition of anonymity because no decision has been made, said the $700 billion rescue package passed by Congress last week allows the Treasury Department to inject fresh capital into financial institutions and get ownership shares in return.
Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson told reporters that Treasury was moving quickly to implement the $700 billion rescue effort and he specifically mentioned reviewing ways to bolster the capital of banks.
"We will use all the tools we've been given to maximum effectiveness, including strengthening the capitalization of financial institutions of every size," Paulson said at a Wednesday news conference.
His statements came on the heels of Britain's move to pour cash into troubled banks in exchange for stakes in them — a partial nationalization.

This is from the NYT, which Fox notes has just noticed:

Having tried without success to unlock frozen credit markets, the Treasury Department is considering taking ownership stakes in many United States banks to try to restore confidence in the financial system, according to government officials.

Josh Marshall at Talking Points Memo says Krugman and Brad DeLong have written about the provision, but, again, it's on blogs, not as regular reporting in mainstream news. This is so strange, but no longer surprising, that the mainstream press is behind the bloggers and always catching up because they are basically stenographers at this point.

UPDATE: Things are moving very quickly. WSJ today quotes White House as saying this approach is not "imminent" but then hours later we have the Saturday meeting of finance ministers announced. My prediction, they'll start doing it over the weekend or at the latest on Monday.

UPDATE II: So, how did recapitalization get into the bill. Apparently, the "back door" is not in the language of the bill itself, which Treasury resisted changing. But in floor discussion, which signals legislative intent in case anyone wants to take it to court.
Fascinating, I've been totally hooked on this mystery since Saturday and now it's coming out. Justin Fox sort of explained it yesterday, and today Roubini has it.