Huffington Post
Tom D'Antoni
September 26, 2008
If anyone doubted that John McCain will do anything to get elected -- including picking an inept fundamentalist to be his Veep because it could energize Republicans-- his sabotaging of the bailout talks by political grandstanding should settle the question. He inflamed the revolt of the hard-right House Republicans, and as Marc Ambinder points out:
During the White House meeting, it appears that Sen. John McCain had an agenda. He brought up alternative proposals, surprising and angering Democrats. He did not, according to someone briefed on the meeting, provide specifics.
One of the proposals -- favored by House Republicans -- would relax regulation and temporarily get rid of certain taxes in order to lure private industry into the market for these distressed assets.
That approach has been rejected by Senate Democrats, Senate Republicans and, to this point, the White House. During the meeting, according to someone briefed on it, Sec. Henry Paulson told those assembled that the approach was not workable.
"Before the White House meeting, Democrats and Senate Republicans were on track to get legislation to the floor by tomorrow. Democrats say that, at best, they hope for half of Republicans in the House to go along. At worst, the vote in the House becomes partisan and then Senate Republicans get shaky and then... "
...
James Davis, a Maryland Assistant Attorney General (speaking as a private citizen) who worked on resolving the original S&L crisis... also pointed out that the real reason why there is such a clamor for a bill, and a rush to get it passed is that there may be billions of dollars pulled out of the hedge funds...money that is due on October 1. This may be the famed October surprise, but one that nobody figured was coming. If that money is due and the hedge funds can't pay, they will collapse.
But Paulson's Wall Street pals are clamoring for help to clean up the mess that their irresponsible lending and greedy practices brought us, with McCain only pouring fuel on the fire he and his GOP deregulatory cronies helped start.
As Chris Hayes of
The Nation pointed out on a recent Keith Olberman show, McCain has placed an "all-in bet on the stupidity of the American public." This Friday's debate should help us discover if he's going to win this desperate bet -- a theatrical, Hail Mary bailout plan for the McCain campaign. To paraphrase one of his slurs of Obama, John McCain has shown that he would rather lose an economy than lose an election.
How irresponsible is McCain?
See The Nation's Chris Hayes gives his take:
(video included)
The answer? Pretty damned irresponsible.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/tom-dantoni/the-meltdown-is-mccainsde_b_129488.html___________________________________________________________________
McC may have done Dems a favor. He may have bungled his own "ride to the rescue".