from Hotline this morning:
http://hotlineblog.nationaljournal.com/archives/2008/09/hotline_after_d_453.htmlMcCain adviser Nancy Pfotenhauer (politicking on FOX News, in contradiction of her boss' suspension), asked how McCain came to this decision: "I think he met with his economic advisers today and then continued to have conversations with people on the Hill. And basically what was underscored was the fact there was going to be a massive fallout in the economy if this wasn't resolved quickly, and that the resolution did not seem to be in the offing, and that there ... was a leadership vacuum. There was a real need for bipartisanship or even non-partisanship, if you will. And that's when Senator McCain took up the gauntlet and has gone forward . . .
But, that's not what they're saying on the Hill . . .
House Financial Services Cmte Chair Barney Frank (D-MA): "I was pretty confident we were close to getting a deal until they decided to air-drop John McCain into this. ... I hear Senator Brownback say, 'Well, McCain's here to save us.' Well, I'm not drowning. I mean, we were making progress. I hope the presidential politics that he's injecting don't stop it" ("On the Record," FNC, 9/24).
More Frank: "It sounds to me like he is trying to set himself up to take credit for something that is in the process of happening without him. ... The notion that he's going to come, airdrop himself in here tomorrow, it's not a subject with which he was very familiar when he was in the Congress. I think it's just a stunt. ... The fact is that the presidential campaign between Senator McCain and Senator Obama has had no destabilizing effect here. We have been making progress" ("Race for the WH," MSNBC, 9/24).
from Think Progress:
http://thinkprogress.org/2008/09/25/lawmakers-mccain-bailout/Time’s Jay Newton-Small reported last night that “leaders from the left and the right rejected the idea of McCain and Obama taking over the talks”:
But leaders from the left and the right rejected the idea of McCain and Obama taking over the talks. When asked by reporters if he wanted McCain sitting in blow-by-blow negotiations Rep. Adam Putnam, the No. 3 House Republican, simply smirked, mute for ten seconds as reporters laughed. Democrats were more voiciferous in their rejection of McCain-Obama negotiations; New York Senator Chuck Schumer and Rep. Jim Clyburn, the No. 3 House Dem, both said if McCain had really cared where have he — and his staff — been in the negotiations thus far.
Putnam told Politico that “McCain and Obama were most valuable in speaking to the need for action rather than getting into the legislative details.” Rep. Spencer Bachus (R-AL), the ranking Republican on the House Financial Services Committee, indicated he didn’t want McCain’s help, pointing “McCain away from the House and toward the Senate.” House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD) said the candidates return would “not be particularly helpful“:
One anonymous Republican ridiculed McCain’s plan to jump into negotiations, telling the Washington Post’s Dana Milbank, “Daddy’s coming home.”