http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2008/09/the-role-of-joh.html [rquoter]The Role of John McCain in the Bailout Bill September 26, 2008 4:46 PM Sen. John McCain's role in the current dealings on Capitol Hill should not be overstated positively or negatively, Capitol Hill sources from both parties say. Democrats are blaming McCain, R-Ariz., for the disastrous meeting yesterday. They claim there was a deal until McCain showed up. Not so. House Republicans were always in large part opposed to the bill. Rep. Spencer Bachus, R-Ala., had no authority (or command) to negotiate for his House GOP colleagues. The House Republicans' issues with the bill would have come to the fore either way. House GOP Leader John Boehner didn't have the votes, and in his view, he wasn't about to be rolled by the Democrats and the Bush administration. Likewise, House Republicans are now praising McCain for his leadership role, for bringing their issues to the forefront. Actually, as ABC News' Jonathan Karl reports, it was Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., who asked Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson for his views of the House GOP bill. McCain has never been particularly popular with House Republicans -- Mitt Romney enjoyed more support in that chamber during the primaries -- though they have been warming to him lately, especially regarding the energy fight over offshore drilling. There's been a symbiotic effort by McCain and the House Republicans to merge and present McCain as their leader these last 24 hours, but it's not really a good fit. In short, the dynamic would likely be as it is right now, whether or not McCain had been in Washington, D.C. (Though it is worth pointing out that some Senate Republicans give McCain and Obama credit for bringing greater public attention to this issue by coming to Washington, D.C, and that was in large part because of McCain's gambit of suspending his campaign and coming to the Capitol.)[/rquoter]
I'm glad it could end up $200-500 Billion less over time due to McCain's stand for the principle of not putting it on the taxpayers alone. Make the market accountable! Keep the innocent taxpayers out of it!
what's so great about the bolded part, there was a deal in place and the only group who didn't agree were house republicans and john stopped the deal from getting done on their behalf. why is this thread worthy
So the guys who threw a wrench into the whole process are crediting McCain for helping them do so? Great! Besides, they are suggesting they were incapable of making their views known for a full week without McCain being there? Is the House GOP that incompetent? Everyone else was able to make their concerns known and be involved in the process. The House GOP, meanwhile, couldn't even agree on a member to send to the meeting to represent them.
The funny part is that as of right now the conventional wisdom is that the House GOP is going to cave and the same plan that was agreed on thursday is going to be implemented sunday or monday, and not the kooky mortgage insurance scheme that they wrote on the back of a napkin.
there are some major concessions, such as the elimination of the ACORN slush fund, and the "proxy access" provisions, and possibly some others.
You don't even know what proxy access is yet you rail against it and refer to it in "quotes" as if it's something odious. I will do you a favor and explain to you what it is since it is within my field of professional expertise. A "proxy access" proposal allows shareholders owning a certain % of shares of a company to submit proposals to corporate boards to be included on their annual SEC Form 14 filing. After it's on the Form 14 it means that shareholders will have what is generally a non-binding vote on the proposal at the corporation's annual meeting. After which, the board may take any action it chooses. That's it - that's all that "proxy access" means. It allows shareholders to place things on the ballot at annual meetings (in this case, I imagine it allows the government to put things on the ballot for bailed-out entities - basically the same rights that any major shareholder would or should have). So tell me, why do you feel that shareholder access to SEC Form 14 proxy statements is such a bad idea that you need to put it in "quotes"? Or were you just copypasting something you read on a right wing blog/website and figured since they were against it you should be too? I bet the place where you read it was equally as uninformed as you are in this regard. Do yourself a favor and shut up because you are way, WAY out of the field of things that you know anything at all about and are just embarrassing yourself at this point. Seriously.
I posted this in another thread, but it is some damn good reporting by the WaPo. McCain's stunt was a bust. He did not lead. He deferred to House Republicans, and would not take a position. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/26/AR2008092603957_pf.html How McCain Stirred a Simmering Pot When Sen. John McCain made his way to the Capitol office of House Minority Leader John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) just past noon on Thursday, he intended to "just touch gloves" with House Republican leaders, according to one congressional aide, and get ready for the afternoon bailout summit at the White House. Instead, Rep. Paul D. Ryan (Wis.), the ranking Republican on the House Budget Committee, was waiting to give him an earful. The $700 billion Wall Street rescue, as laid out by Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr., was never going to fly with House Republicans, Ryan said. The plan had to be fundamentally reworked, relying instead on a new program of mortgage insurance paid not by the taxpayers but by the banking industry. McCain listened, then, with Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (S.C.), he burst into the Senate Republican policy luncheon. Over a Tex-Mex buffet, Sens. Robert F. Bennett (Utah) and Judd Gregg (N.H.) had been explaining the contours of a deal just reached. House Republicans were not buying it. Then McCain spoke. "I appreciate what you've done here, but I'm not going to sign on to a deal just to sign the deal," McCain told the gathering, according to Graham and confirmed by multiple Senate GOP aides. "Just like Iraq, I'm not afraid to go it alone if I need to." For a moment, as Graham described it, "you could hear a pin drop. It was just unbelievable." Then pandemonium. By the time the meeting broke up, the agreement touted just hours before -- one that Sen. Lamar Alexander (Tenn.), the No. 3 GOP leader, estimated would be supported by more than 40 Senate Republicans -- was in shambles. An incendiary mix of presidential politics, delicate dealmaking and market instability played out Thursday in a tableau of high drama, with $700 billion and the U.S. economy possibly in the balance. McCain's presence was only one of the complicating factors. Sen. Barack Obama played his part, with a hectoring performance behind closed doors at the White House. And a brewing House Republican leadership fight helped scramble allegiances in the GOP. It is unclear whether the day's events will prove to be historically significant or a mere political sideshow. If the administration and lawmakers forge an agreement largely along the lines of the deal they had reached before McCain's arrival Thursday, the tumult will have been a momentary speed bump. If the deal collapses, the recriminations spawned that day will be fierce. But if a final deal incorporates House Republican principles while leaning most heavily on the accord between the administration, House Democrats and Senate Republicans, all sides will be able to claim some credit -- even if the legislation is not popular with voters. "If there is a deal with the House involved, it's because of John McCain," Graham, one of the Arizonan's closest friends in the Senate, said yesterday. In truth, McCain's dramatic announcement Wednesday that he would suspend his campaign and come to Washington for the bailout talks had wide repercussions. Democrats, eager to reach a deal before McCain could claim credit, hunkered down and made real progress ahead of his arrival. Conservative Republicans in the House reacted as well, according to aides who were part of the talks. The Republican Study Committee, an enclave of House conservatives, had already begun turning against the Paulson plan. When McCain announced his return, the conservatives feared he would forge an agreement largely along Paulson's lines, with slight alterations and the GOP leadership's blessing. "No one knew where he was going," one of the aides said. Boehner, who had initially greeted Paulson's plan with some warmth, faces a brewing battle next year for the party leadership. Conservatives were making it no secret that they were thinking of backing House Deputy Republican Whip Eric Cantor (R-Va.) in a challenge to Boehner, and Paulson's request for $700 billion was not making matters better. On Wednesday afternoon, Boehner appointed a new working group, led by Cantor, Ryan and Republican Study Committee Chairman Jeb Hensarling (R-Tex.), and including some moderates, to see if they could put together an alternative proposal. McCain's impending arrival shifted that effort into high gear. By the time McCain arrived in Boehner's office Thursday, the principles of a new plan were ready. According to Republican aides, McCain was in Boehner's office when the announcement of a deal crossed their BlackBerrys. Rep. Spencer Bachus (Ala.), the House Republicans' representative in the talks, stumbled into the meeting to be peppered by participants with incredulous questions. It was Ryan who made it most clear that there really was no deal. The core of Paulson's plan -- using $700 billion in taxpayer money to buy distressed assets from failing financial firms -- had to be changed, he told McCain. Instead, banks should have to pony up money for a new federally administered insurance program, like the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. Banks suffering from mortgage defaults would then be able to draw funds from the insurance pool to remain solvent. It was not a new idea, White House and Treasury officials said. Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke had considered a similar option and rejected it. For one thing, asking banks teetering on the edge of bankruptcy to pay into the insurance fund would be like asking a patient facing heart surgery to buy health insurance before being wheeled into the operating room. The banks would be too weak to pay, and the cost of the insurance would be so high, drawing on the fund after a round of mortgage foreclosures would merely be repaying the banks what they had paid in. Besides, one Treasury official said, it would do nothing to address the problem at hand. Banks would have no more money than they do now to lend. And they would still be holding the bad assets that are making it impossible for them to borrow. Paulson made those points Wednesday at a contentious meeting with House Republicans. But Ryan convinced McCain that the idea had to be taken seriously to bring House Republicans on board. "McCain has been trying to help the House guys, trying to get their ideas into the broader bill," said a senior Republican Senate aide. "If McCain can do that, he can bring 50 to 100 House Republicans to the bill. That would be a big damn deal." McCain and Graham made just that point at the Tex-Mex lunch, but McCain also spoke in the starkly personal terms of a presidential candidate in trouble: "You all put me on the hook for $700 billion," he told his colleagues, according to an aide familiar with the lunch. The breakdown was serious enough that word reached Paulson. Just 25 minutes before the scheduled meeting at the White House, Paulson phoned House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) to alert her to trouble, according to a Senate Democratic leadership aide. When congressional leaders converged on the White House, the Democrats peeled off into the Roosevelt Room to discuss the revolt over the insurance plan. President Bush was kept waiting, something he has always hated. After the cameras left the Cabinet room, Bush thanked everybody for their spirit of cooperation and said he knew it was not an easy vote. He knew elements still needed to be worked out and said he wanted to go around the table to hear people's views. Pelosi said Obama would speak for the Democrats. Though later he would pepper Paulson with questions, according to a Republican in the room, his initial point was brief: "We've got to get something done." Bush turned to McCain, who joked, "The longer I am around here, the more I respect seniority." McCain then turned to Boehner and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) to speak first. Boehner was blunt. The plan Paulson laid out would not win the support of the vast majority of House Republicans. It had been improved on the edges, with an oversight board and caps on the compensation of participating executives. But it had to be changed at the core. He did not mention the insurance alternative, but Democrats did. Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.), chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, pressed Boehner hard, asking him if he really intended to scrap the deal and start again. No, Boehner replied, he just wanted his members to have a voice. Obama then jumped in to turn the question on his rival: "What do you think of the [insurance] plan, John?" he asked repeatedly. McCain did not answer. One Republican in the room said it was clear that the Democrats came into the meeting with a "game plan" aimed at forcing McCain to choose between the administration and House Republicans. "They had taken McCain's request for a meeting and trumped it," said this source. Congressional aides from both parties were standing in the lobby of the West Wing, unaware of the discord inside the Cabinet room, when McCain emerged alone, shook the hands of the Marines at the door and left. The aides were baffled. The plan had been for a bipartisan appearance before the media, featuring McCain, Obama and at least a firm statement in favor of intervention. Now, one of the leading men was gone. The rest of the actors poured out of the room still highly agitated. Democrats clustered in the hall between the lobby and the Oval Office, pressing Bachus to explain what had happened to the deal. The Democrats discussed whether to go before the cameras waiting in front of the White House, but Obama refused. Without McCain next to him, he said, he would be skewered for using the White House as a backdrop. As the talk grew louder, Obama asked if they could duck into a room, and back they went to the ornate, windowless Roosevelt Room. It was then that Paulson gingerly walked in to beg, "Don't blow this up, please." The secretary feared that Democrats would throw their hands up and declare the deal dead. The crowd erupted in unison, all barking at Paulson that they were not the problem -- he needed to talk to his own party. Under the barrage, Paulson dropped to one knee, clasped his hands in front of his face as if he were praying and joked: "Please, please, don't blow this up. Give me some time." "Hank," Pelosi replied, "I didn't know you were Catholic."
McCain cares only about his personal ambition. Who knows what happened years ago in captivity, perhaps he put country first., but we know what has happened in the last few months.
