We have not had an honest debate since Lincoln and Douglas. We haven't had an honest media and/or newspaper since the same time. I would not waste my time!

THEY ARE THE MAJORITY!!!

but they cannot get enough votes without some republican support. They are not monolithic.

Franks and Dodd both knew dam well that the Republican house did not sign off on this

The republicans they were negotiating with did and would have been much more likely to bring enough republicans on board had not McCain brought the circus.

It seems that McCain’s sin was in noncommittally mentioning that the House Republicans have an alternative plan that calls for much less dramatic government action.

James, this doesn't seem to jibe with what Palin said about the bailout. She indicated in her interview with Couric that the bailout needed to have provisions for job creation and health care reform.

Since there was nothing about job creation or health care in the bill, presumably McCain couldn't support it.

Given the ticket's priorities, it sounds like they wanted to expand the bill's scope into areas not related to the credit markets which would undoubtedly jack up the costs.

but you have to admit that after two years of control they have been a disgrace!

That I certainly do agree to.

Every time a decision or bill has to be taken care of, they take a pass and get NOTHING DONE!

They act both in actions and on TV like they are the minority party always crying poor me, Dem's in control have forgotten how to act like adults. I'm not a fan of Ted Kennedy, but hell I wish he was around right now, somebody needs to tell the children how to act.

Franks and Dodd both knew dam well that the Republican house did not sign off on this, those two and Reed didn't want McCain and Obama to take the spotlight from them and they jumped the gun on the deal call. Those two should be involved, one of those two will be knee deep in this mess for their first term.

If they strip all that added junk the put into it and take some of the house Republican ideas under advisement, they should be able to get this done.

McCain has said he won’t attend [the debate] if an agreement is not reached on how to deal with the country’s mortgage and credit crisis.

Well, maybe not. What a leader.

Bills like this always always always require bipartisan support. Both sides have to swallow bitter pills and get this passed, which looked like it was going to happen until yesterday. The potential costs of failing to do so could easily dwarf 700 billion dollars.

Another fact to face, it's not going to be a 'good' bill, hell it's not even going to be close. No massive bill like this could be even if we had years to fine tune it. But it must be done and the longer we wait the more it will cost us.

House republicans are playing 'my way or the highway' with this bill and it's extremely risky. See WaMu the bank with 300 billion in assets to collapse last night after things broke down. How many more need to collapse before the whole banking industry does, and how many years would it take for the economy to recover?

Yeah, go ahead all you dems, vote for it. Then you own it. And with that, you will also own the anger of the majority of voters who are opposed to a bail out.

On this issue, we will not see any courageous and/or principled acts from the Dems. A deal will be cut in order to obtain political top cover (in the form of a guaranteed number of republican votes) from the Repubs.

The House Repubs have the whip hand on this issue and the Dems know it.

THEY ARE THE MAJORITY!!!

Regardless of them not trusting this President (Which really is a non-issue). They don't want to be responsible for the price tag, we'll that's just to dam bad.

They have nooooooo problem getting on TV show after show and saying it's all the house Republicans and McCains fault that it fell apart. Guess what Nancy and Harry, leaders are elected to lead, YOU have the house and YOU have the Senate.

If it's for the good of the country pass the dam thing and show some backbone (That's what leaders do)!

But now Frank and Dodd who are to blame just as much as everybody else in this mess IF NOT MORE are putting christmas presents (excess profits to ACORN??? & getting courts to make mortage ajustments on loans) need to put thru a clean bill and take some of the suggestions from the house Republicans which looking at have some valid ideas and get this done.

My contempt for Dodd and Franks in this mess is heading off the charts!

Before the dam broke, McCain was preaching “all is well on the economic front”, but the bump in the political polls following the Convention had dissipated and Obama was once again leading. Of equal importance, there were signs that Sarah Palin might be a real liability.

When the dam broke, McCain acted “decisively”, the primary thrust was clearly stated: (1) Cancel the Presidential debates and move them to the date of the Vice-Presidential Debates (that took care of the Sarah Palin problem). (2) A challenge to Obama to cancel all campaign activities (that would blunt Obama’s climbing poll numbers). (3) Fly down to Washington to join the fray at the invitation of the President (we know that the President did not consult Congress as to whether this would perturb the negotiations).

In the above “decisive” McCain’s actions, any delay in adopting a solution to the financial problem would strengthen his hand in trying to force Obama into playing his game “suspending the political campaign”. The immediate prize was much desired: cancellation of tonight’s debate on foreign policy.

McCain, known to view risk not as something to be considered, but as something to be challenged, rolled the dice convinced that Obama under the rush of events would crack. Fat chance on that one!

Did McCain contribute to the brake down of the proposed solution? Why did Harry Reid and others firmly state that Presidential Politics should not be playing a part in the negotiations? We had one major bank in California fail this morning, will there be more and can the proposed financial plan prevent them? Why is James Joyner saying

Stephen Bainbridge and others have persuaded me that this is genuinely a crisis and one that calls for dramatic government action. But a hastily arranged, no oversight takeover of a large sector of the economy by unelected bureacrats isn’t the solution.

when these concessions had already been fully incorporated into the financial package?

Who knows, only the Shadow knows. But, a Google search does tells us that Stephan Bainbridge is a Professor of Business Law at UCLA, a wine and food connoisseur and a disdainer of Batman heroics.

How did we get to this point? It’s the culmination of many past betrayals.

So what we now have is non-functional government in the face of a major crisis, because Congress includes a quorum of crazies and nobody trusts the White House an inch.

That about sums it up. Sandy Levinson has a point when he complains about the lack of a "no confidence" vote in our system. We would've been better off with McCain or Obama in the White House a year ago.

Dodd and Franks are up to their eyeballs in this mess and the speaker wants the Republicans to provide cover for them in a vote. THAT'S A JOKE!!

Good old Nancy has been playing fast and loose with the house rules since she got control of the house, somebody needs to remind her that she is not the minority any more and she has the votes to pass this all on her own.

That's if she dares.

During the "suspension" McCain gave intern views, Palin appeared at a major fundraiser, McCain's surrogates continue to speak on his behalf, all of his field offices stayed open, all of his staffers stayed busy, his campaign aides accompanied him to DC...the only "suspension" was that he pulled a few ads which will go back up on Saturday.