Robert Kuttner takes McCain to task for doing all of the politicking but none of the heavy legislative lifting on the bailout bill.
At the level of presidential politics, this signals severe disarray both in the McCain camp and in the Republican Party. The House Republicans are deserting both their president and their Senate colleagues. McCain is all over the map. Bush's feeble attempt at leadership failed. He couldn't even hold the Republicans. At the White House meeting, Obama was engaged, asking plenty of respectful and substantive questions, while McCain sat like a stump.
But what about the substance of the legislation and the fate of the country? The Republicans have abdicated. The question now is whether the Democrats have the wit, the nerve, and the unity to do this right. As the politics stand today, the eventual plan may well pass Congress mostly with Democratic votes, with most Republicans voting no, but signed by a Republican president. If the plan works, the Democrats are heroes. If it fails, they are goats. It had damned well better work.
The emerging House Republican plan for a "private-sector solution" (backed by more government insurance and tax benefits) is pathetic. It's not really private at all, and it won't solve the problem. But what will solve the problem?
--The Editors
