By ELISABETH BUMILLER
Updated | 5:01 p.m.: Where was John McCain? Not on Capitol Hill.
After interrupting his presidential campaign to come back to Washington on Thursday morning to try to push forward a $700 billion bailout deal, Mr. McCain remained in his condominium in Arlington, Va., until 12:30 p.m. Saturday, when he emerged and made a one-minute trip in his motorcade to his campaign headquarters around the corner.
Mr. McCain, who arrived home at 4 a.m. Saturday from the presidential debate in Oxford, Miss, could be seen in his car talking on his cell phone. But there was no word from his campaign on who he was talking to, or the extent of his involvement in ongoing negotiations.
By mid-afternoon, Mr. McCain’s closest adviser, Mark Salter, told reporters that Mr. McCain would not go to Capitol Hill on Saturday but would make phone calls to try to push the deal along. “He’s calling members on both sides, talking to people in the administration, helping out as he can,’’ Mr. Salter said.
Asked why Mr. McCain did not go to Capitol Hill after coming back to Washington to help with negotiations, Mr. Salter replied that “he can effectively do what he needs to do by phone.’’
Mr. McCain’s running mate, Gov. Sarah Palin, spent her day in Philadelphia in preparation for next week’s vice presidential debate. She had no public events scheduled for Saturday.
Of Mr. McCain’s performance in Friday’s debate with Senator Barack Obama, Mr. Salter said that “it was a very tough debate but I don’t think our candidate went over the line.’’ Mr. Salter added that Mr. McCain “stayed on offense in a respectful way.’’
By 5 p.m., McCain aides had released a list of people they said Mr. McCain had called from his campaign headquarters on Saturday. Among them were:
President Bush; Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson; Fed chairman Ben S. Bernanke; Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Republican leader; Senator Judd Gregg, Republican of New Hampshire; Senator Jon Kyl, Republican of Arizona; Representative John A. Boehner of Kentucky, the House Republican leader; and Representative Roy Blunt, Republican of Missouri and the House whip.
Precious!