HuffPo: "Deal May Be Dead," At White House, McCain Plays Bailout Spoiler

[Amerigo Vespucci]

At White House, McCain Plays Bailout Spoiler



http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/09/25/at-white-house-mccain-pla_n_129438.html

Inside an intense White House meeting over the financial crisis on Thursday, where nearly every key player came to an agreement on the outlines of the bailout package, Sen. John McCain stuck out. The Republican candidate, according to sources with direct knowledge, sat quiet through most of the meeting, never offered specifics, and spoke only at the end to raise doubts about the rough compromise that the White House and congressional leaders were nearing.

McCain's reluctance to jump on board the bailout agreement could throw the entire week-long negotiation into a tailspin. Sen. Chris Dodd, after leaving the White House, suggested on CNN that the tenuous process could be derailed by what he viewed as McCain's political motives.

"What happened here, basically, if you want an honest appraisal of the thing, we have been spending a lot of time and I am tired. I have spent almost seven straight days at this in trying to come out with a workout plan for our economy a rescue plan," said Dodd. "What this looked like to me was a rescue plan for John McCain for two hours and took us away from the work we are trying to do today. Serious people trying to do serious work to come up with an answer."

According to the source with knowledge of the White House gathering -- which featured both presidential candidates, congressional leaders and the President -- virtually ever key figure in the room, save McCain and GOP Sen. Richard Shelby, were in agreement over a revised version of Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson's plan.

Towards the end, McCain finally spoke up, mentioning a counter-proposal that had been offered by some conservative House Republicans, which would suspend the capital gains tax for two years and provide tax incentives to encourage firms that buy up bad debt. McCain did not discuss specifics of the plan, though, and was non-committal about supporting it.

Paulson, however, argued directly against the conservative proposal. "He said that he did not think it would work," according to the source. At another point in the meeting, President Bush chimed in, "If money isn't loosened, this sucker could go down" -- and by sucker he meant economy.

[Overseas]

1. No mystery to McLame moves. Just the Gingrich plan in action.

http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalradar/2008/09/gingrich-mccain.html

If McCain were to come out against the bailout plan, Gingrich said that Republicans would rally to his side and it would become possible for the McCain-Palin ticket to style itself as "taking on the Bush-Obama establishment."

"Either McCain is going to go along" with Obama in supporting the plan, said Gingrich, "in which case the establishment will have the fix in . . . or you are going to see McCain decide, much in the way that he did in picking Palin, that, in fact, he is a genuine maverick, that he genuinely defends the taxpayers, and that this is a terrible bill."

"If the latter happens," Gingrich continued, "I think you will see the emergence overnight of a 'McCain Reform Wing of the Republican Party' and you'll see House and Senate members siding with McCain by overwhelming margins and then you'll be in a very different political environment. You'll have 'Bush-Obama ads' on the one side and 'taking on the Bush-Obama establishment' on the other side, and that will be, frankly, one of the more amazing elections."

[DCBob]

2. That is the message that most are hearing -- McCain killed the deal by parachuting into...

the center of this with the entire media watching. Idiot.

[1Hippiechick]

5. Whaddya expect? He can't pilot, but he's got BAILING OUT down to a fine art!

[Captiosus]

7. Par for the course, I suppose.

He crash landed in Vietnam to his dismay.
Now he's crash landed in Congress and his campaign is in its own Hanoi Hilton.

[AlCzervik]

3. so everyone was on board cept Shelby, how about Bunning?

how will this play to the base i wonder, i gotta think it might be for them.

[Olney Blue]

4. There's something wrong when the chimp sounds reasonable compared

to McWorse.

[Douglas Carpenter]

8. chimpy is not running for office this year

[qazplm]

6. You know it's sad

when Bush looks much more serious and with it than McCain.

I am really starting to believe that if I had to pick between a third term of Bush or a first term of McCain, that Bush would be tremendously better.

[crazy_vanilla]

9. well, the deal broke when McInsane showed up

[K Gardner]

10. "This sucker could go down!" ??!! And McCain's ONLY input was a CG Tax Cut?? No wonder Obama's

jaw is clenched. I bet he's thinking: "Gads, I can't wait until these idiots are out of my house."

[opiate69]

11. But, but.. Fucker Bounds says McCain BROKE the stalemate!?!

Sweet Jesus, is he not the dumbest campaign spokesperson in the world??
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2008/09/25/as-predicted-tucker-bounds-tries-to-say-that-mccain-is-responsible-for-breaking-the-bailout-stalemate/

[DeschutesRiver]

12. He'll keep stalling the passage until Friday night - so he can say

Obama fiddled at a debate, while Rome was burning, and he, the hero John McCain, resolved the crisis single handedly while Obama was talking to himself in Oxford.

I still think he is going to trip himself up, because you just can't underestimate stupid. Or fix it.