McCain: Crazy Like A Fox (bumped for udates)

This is just too crazy.

Day before yesterday Reid was saying that they needed McCain to help bring Republicans on board for this economic bill. Chris Dodd, the chairman of the committee, comes out the same day and says that there is no progress being made and they can't come even close to an agreement.

Then yesterday McCain says he is suspending his campaign and coming to Washington to help with the bill. He asks Obama to come as well. Obama says he doesn't think that is necessary, but it ends up both are there now. So McCain clearly led there.

Now, Chris Dodd come out today and says they are close to an agreement. After saying the day before that it wasn't even close.

I wondered what changed? Oh yeah, that's right. McCain was coming to save the day and Dodd could not have that.

But Dodd may have spoken too soon:

House Minority Leader Rep. John Boehner, R-Ohio, just issued a statement on the legislation being hammered out by House Financial Services Committee Chairman Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., and Senate Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd, D-Conn

“As I told our Conference this morning, there is no bipartisan deal at this time," Boehner said. "There may be a deal among some Democrats, but House Republicans are not a part of it.”

I guess they may need McCain after all.

But the way I see it McCain wins either way. If they do come out with a deal now, it is obvious that Dodd and the Democrats almost had a cow that McCain was coming, and decided to compromise enough to pass a bill in order not to help McCain in his presidential ambitions.

You gotta love it.

By the way, Cynthia McKinney, the Green Party candidate has offered to debate Obama in McCain's place.

I think that is a delicious idea.

Update: I wanted to add this because I think it's important to illustrate why agreements like this are so difficult for Republicans.

Republican Senator DeMint from South Carolina discovered that Harry Reid tried to to sneak the oil shale ban, which was backed by House Democrats, into legislation while all this bailout controversy continues.
DeMint says this:

"Oil shale in America's West is estimated to hold be between 800 billion and 2 trillion barrels of oil -- that is more than three times the proven oil reserves in Saudi Arabia alone."

And Reid is trying to sneak in language under the cover of the bailout to keep America from attaining this oil during our energy crisis.

Sneaky and wrong.

Good grief.

Update II: Clinton defends McCain's decision to postpone debate. This is getting sorta comical, isn't it? Who is Clinton campaigning for again?

ABC News' Nitya Venkataraman Reports: Former President Bill Clinton defended Sen. John McCain's request to delay the first presidential debate, saying McCain did it in "good faith" and pushed organizers to reserve time for economy talk during the debate if the Friday plans move forward.

Update III: Let's imagine the best case scenerio. Congress comes out with a bill, everyone agrees. The President, McCain, and Obama are there to make it look like one big happy bi-partisan family.

McCain can in good conscience go to the debate and Obama goes because he never said he wouldn't.

The perception is that McCain got Obama to come to Washington to "be helpful," whether that is fair or not.

There is one thing that no one has mentioned. Obama has supposed to have been studying and prepping for the debate on foreign policy. He didn't get the time he would have to prep. Not good. I wonder if Obama will ask for the debate topic to be changed?

Just a thought.

Update IV: Rich Lowery at National Review just put this up:

A friend following it closely says Pelosi wants 110 Republican votes as cover. But the House GOP isn't close to having that kind of support. It's more like 50. If Republicans aren't going along with it, Pelosi will be even more swayed by her most liberal members pulling the package to the left. And the whole thing might end up on the "continuing resolution." What a mess. Meanwhile, apparently Senate Republicans are relatively passive. The whole game is the House Republicans.

Can McCain sway enough Republicans to change their vote? You know, this is politically fascinating. On the one hand Republicans don't want this bail out as it stands because it is too much and unfair to the American Taxpayer. They are very unhappy. On the other hand, if they allow themselves to be swayed by McCain and it gets the deal done, then they will have given McCain a big BIG Presidential boost that may propel him into the White House and they sure as heck want McCain there instead of Obama.

What is a good Republican to do?