McCain's Smoke and Mirrors
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| Thu, 09-25-2008 - 3:30pm |
Maybe this (non)"suspension" is just McCain's political smoke and mirrors. He'll vote "no" on any agreement primarily as a campaign stunt:
http://marcambinder.theatlantic.com/archives/2008/09/scrambling_toward_a_compromise.php
Scrambling Toward A Compromise
25 Sep 2008
John McCain's vow to return to Washington and get this mess settled out has lit a fire under the behinds of Democratic negotiators who worry that his presence will suspend their negotiations, give House Republicans a figure to rally around in opposition to a compromise, and generally weaken their negotiation position.
That's why they're scrambling to have a compromise in place before the 4:00 pm ET meeting with President Bush at the White House. If they do, then they only need worry about McCain's claiming credit for the sense of urgency, which would be inaccurate but hard to disprove. The fact is that, by 2pm yesterday, the House and Senate Democrats had settled their most important differences, the White House had caved on CEO pays, and the two sides were coming close to dealing with the bailout's oversight mechanism, its posture toward homeowners, and whether taxpayers would get ownership stakes in taken-over companies. Then McCain airdrops in --well, he's not actually in DC yet, so it was a virtual airdrop -- and it compresses the timeline even more.
My colleague Nora McAvalnah tells me that sources close to Senate Democratic leadership
now fear that McCain's true motivation for calling off his campaign and coming back to DC is simply to cast a "no" vote against the bailout, despite his private statements to the contrary. And it's a smart maneuver: nothing says "maverick," like voting against Bush and standing with the American public, who remain very wary of the proposal.>>>
http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/politicalinsider/2008/09/is-mccain-preparing-to-vote-ag.html
Is McCain Preparing to Vote Against the Bailout Bill?
By Taegan Goddard | September 25, 2008
(snip)
Here are the five principles outlines by Obama:
First, there must be oversight. We should not hand over a blank check to the discretion of one man. We support an independent, bipartisan board to ensure accountability and complete transparency.
Second, we need to protect taxpayers. There should be a path for taxpayers to recover their money, and to turn a profit if Wall Street prospers.
Third, no Wall Street executive should profit from taxpayer dollars. This plan cannot be a welfare program for CEOs whose greed and irresponsibility has contributed to this crisis.
Fourth, we must help families who are struggling to stay in their homes. We cannot bail out Wall Street without helping millions of families facing foreclosure on Main Street.
Fifth, we both agree that this financial rescue package should move on its own without any earmarks or other measures. We have different views about the need for other action, but this must be a clean bill.
Interestingly, when President Bush addressed the nation just minutes later, he essentially agreed to the exact same set of principles in his own speech. So the question is: Why wouldn't McCain agree to a fairly innocuous, Mom and apple pie set of conditions for a bill?
Democrats fear this morning that McCain is setting up a scenario in which he will vote against the bill, rally conservatives to his side and, most importantly, distance himself from both President Bush and Congress before the election.>>>
Smoke and mirrors...appear concerned, "suspend" your campaign, use a "no" vote to distance yourself from Bush and Congress making you appear like a maverick. Brilliant, but are Democrats so feckless to allow this to happen? They should go back to the drawing boards and fake up a debate that lasts until just before November 4th. It could be just small rotating committees in session doing the actual debating so that the politicans can rotate into and out of their districts to campaign. If Wall Street suffers, so be it. If they can't get a "yes" vote out of McCain, let Wall Street sweat.

Hmmm. Interesting hypotheses.
Will conservatives support him? He is not well liked.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080925/ap_on_bi_ge/financial_meltdown
By JENNIFER LOVEN, Associated Press Writer 5 minutes ago
WASHINGTON - Confident but not yet celebrating, congressional leaders agreed Thursday on a multibillion-dollar bailout plan for Wall Street aimed at staving off a national economic catastrophe. President Bush brought the two men fighting to succeed him to a historic White House huddle on how to sell a deal to lawmakers who were still resisting.
Private talks on Capitol Hill ended at midday with the announcement that an agreement in principle had been reached on a $700 billion financial rescue package that the Bush administration wants. Few details were immediately available.
There were signs that the conservative-leaning House Republican Caucus was not on board. Both of Congress' Republican leaders, Rep. John Boehner and Sen. Mitch McConnell, issued statements saying there was not yet an agreement.
But Banking Chairman Chris Dodd, D-Conn., and Republican Sen. Bob Bennett, among others, said negotiators from Congress and the administration had arrived at a deal that could win approval. Other key lawmakers said that after days of bareknuckles negotiations there was little of note left to resolve.
The early reaction from the White House was positive but cautious. "It's a good sign that progress is being made," White House deputy press secretary Tony Fratto said.
Wall Street showed its pleasure, cautiously. The Dow Jones industrials were up about 200 points near the end of the trading day, though they had been up much more earlier in the day.
Under the tentative plan, the government would buy the toxic, mortgage-based assets of shaky financial institutions in a bid to keep them from going under and setting off a cascade of ruinous events, including wiped-out retirement savings, rising home foreclosures, closed businesses, and lost jobs. Bush warned darkly in a prime-time address Wednesday night, "Our entire economy is in danger."
Debate has been fierce on such questions as whether to phase in the cost and whether to give taxpayers an equity stake in rescued companies. Housing Financial Services Chairman Barney Frank, D-Mass., told The Associated Press both would be included in the legislation.
The Bush administration has made concessions almost daily to demands from the right and the left from its original three-page proposal, including agreeing to limit pay for executives of bailed-out financial institutions.
While lawmakers engaged in nitty-gritty dealmaking, Democrat Barack Obama and Republican John McCain, who have each sought in their own ways to distance themselves from the unpopular Bush, prepared to sit down together with the sitting president at the White House for an hourlong afternoon session apparently without precedent. By also including Congress' Democratic and Republican leaders in the meeting, much of Washington's political power structure was to be gathered at one long table in a small West Wing room.
The White House timed the session to fit the candidates' schedules — and after the stock markets closed for the day.
It was somewhat upstaged nearly three hours before various motorcades deposited the meeting participants and their entourages inside the White House gates, when Capitol Hill leaders reported their deal. Despite the national prominence of Bush, McCain and Obama, none has been deeply involved in this week's scramble to hammer out a package.
The developments on the Hill lent fresh and urgent purpose to the session: providing encouragement — and political cover — for lawmakers of both parties to accept the plan in this highly charged election season.
The bailout plan is expected to come up for votes in the House and Senate quickly, perhaps within days, so that lawmakers can adjourn to campaign for their own re-elections.
"The meeting's purpose is to provide for a discussion among the country's top political leadership where everyone can agree on the urgency of getting something done and on a path to bringing it to conclusion," said White House press secretary Dana Perino.
The pitch by Bush, Obama and McCain was no easy sell.
All lawmakers are returning to home districts packed with constituents angry that they are being asked to foot the bill to bail out Wall Street's rich guys when they and their neighbors are suffering the effects of ballooning mortgages and tightening credit. This means Obama and even the increasingly marginalized Bush could have sway with their joint resolve.
McCain, in particular, was being leaned on by Democrats and fellow Republicans alike to deliver GOP votes, as some conservatives are in open revolt over the astonishing price tag of the proposal and the heavy hand of government that it would place on private markets. Placating them enough to bring them in line could be a tall order for the Republican presidential nominee who has a checkered relationship with the right wing of his party.
A group of GOP lawmakers circulated a less government-focused alternative. Their proposal would have the government provide insurance to companies that agree to hold frozen assets, rather than have the government purchase the assets. Rep Eric Cantor, R-Va., said the idea would be to remove the burden of the bailout from taxpayers and place it, over time, on Wall Street instead.
Layered over the White House meeting was a complicated web of potential political benefits and consequences for both Obama and McCain.
McCain hoped voters would believe that he rose above politics to wade into successful, nitty-gritty dealmaking at a time of urgent crisis, but he risked being seen instead as either overly impulsive or politically craven, or both. Obama saw a chance to appear presidential and fit for duty, but was also caught off guard strategically by McCain's surprising gamble in saying he was suspending his campaigning and asking to delay Friday night's debate to focus on the crisis.