Everyone (including me) has been scratching their heads about exactly why John McCain went to DC yesterday,and why he agreed to go to the debate today after saying he would not go until a bill was ready. I think I've come up with an answer. On the first count- why he went to DC - he was saying all week that the Paulson plan was DOA and would never pass without substantial changes. Bush and Democratic leaders on the Hill totally ignored him, even going so far as to tell him to stay away, that he would just muck up the process.
But McCain had an ace up his sleeve: he knew that House Republicans were not going to support the Paulson plan, and he knew that Democrats were going to demand Republican support for what has become a seriously unpopular bill. So McCain called the President and asked him to convene a meeting to hash out the bill, but he never intended for that meeting to lead to a compromise. At the meeting, Republican House Minority Leader John Boehner dropped a bomb, saying that House Republicans would not support the Paulson plan, and then he offered the insurance strategy plan as an alternative. Bush and the Democrats were caught totally off-guard by the roadblock and turned to McCain for help.. Barney Frank asked John McCain which bill he supported, and McCain declined to voice support for either plan. That single act threw the meeting into total chaos. By refusing to help the President and Democrats steamroll the House Republicans, McCain effectively killed the Paulson plan and sent everyone back to the drawing board. He then took it a step further and made sure House Republicans would have a seat at the table for the next round of discussions. As to the second issue- why did McCain agree to go to the debate, the answer comes directly from the first issue. He went to DC, nuked the Paulson plan, and delivered the House Republicans by giving them a seat at the table to craft a new bill. Task completed, he figured he could go to the debate. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Adobe® ColdFusion® 8 software 8 is the most important and dramatic release to date Get the Free Trial http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;207172674;29440083;f Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/message.cfm/messageid:271084 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89.70.5
