Ellington

The Washington Post is reporting that Republicans backed out of a deal on the bailout this afternoon, with Democrats charging that some Republicans are trying to give McCain cover for backing out of the date:

Obama said that "something happened in the intervening hours" between the Capitol and White House meetings that effectively threw a wrench into the works. He said Bush, Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr. and congressional Republicans need to figure out what they want in the package "to make this thing work." Obama cautioned that "when you start injecting presidential politics into delicate negotiations, then you can actually create more problems rather than less."

A visibly irritated Sen. Christopher J. Dodd (D-Conn.), chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, summarized the impasse in more pointed terms. He told CNN that the meeting was thrown off when Republicans brought up "some new core agreement" that supposedly had been floated by McCain and was being considered by the Treasury Department.

"What this looked like to me was a rescue plan for John McCain," Dodd fumed. "This is a sad day for the country." He said he still hopes that a deal can be struck but that the Republicans "need to get their act together and decide what they're for."

Previous Comments

ID

138240

Comment

It is incomprehensible how "sad" this game really is. Here's what I think: I believe McCain has asked certain Republicans to hold up taking the plan long enough for him to duck out of the Friday debate. He then will insist that this debate be moved to the night of Palin's, and try to make the veep debate not happen because Palin has shown herself absolutely unable to hold her own without a script. Then he will act like the victim if the Obama campaign objects. It is one of the lowest political moments in our history. I also believe (and pray) that the American people see this game for what it is, and see the red flags that it sends up about the kind of president McCain would be. All that said, I'm not convinced the bailout plan is sound. What needs to happen is continuing negotiation, and McCain hops on a plane to Oxford to debate economic issues with Obama to help Americans plan for our future. But he is clearly too chicken sh!t to do that.

Author

DonnaLadd

Date

2008-09-25T17:39:52-06:00