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The crucial article on yesterday's debate negotiations is this deeply reported New York Times play-by-play. And there are two key scenes:
In the Roosevelt Room after the session, the Treasury secretary, Henry M. Paulson Jr., literally bent down on one knee as he pleaded with Nancy Pelosi, the House Speaker, not to “blow it up” by withdrawing her party’s support for the package over what Ms. Pelosi derided as a Republican betrayal.“I didn’t know you were Catholic,” Ms. Pelosi said, a wry reference to Mr. Paulson’s kneeling, according to someone who observed the exchange. She went on: “It’s not me blowing this up, it’s the Republicans.”Mr. Paulson sighed. “I know. I know.”That's not good for the Republicans. And it's worse for John McCain who committed himself to a deal when he suspended his campaign and flew to Washington. Then there's the passivity of John McCain, which emerges repeatedly in the article:
But once the doors closed, the smooth-talking House Republican leader, John A. Boehner of Ohio, surprised many in the room by declaring that his caucus could not support the plan to allow the government to buy distressed mortgage assets from ailing financial companies.Mr. Boehner pressed an alternative that involved a smaller role for the government, and Mr. McCain, whose support of the deal is critical if fellow Republicans are to sign on, declined to take a stand.[...]Mr. McCain was at one end of the long conference table, Mr. Obama at the other, with the president and senior Congressional leaders between them. Participants said Mr. Obama peppered Mr. Paulson with questions, while Mr. McCain said little.After naming himself a central actor in this drama, McCain stepped onto the stage and promptly forgot his lines. Possessing neither a substantive understanding of the crisis nor political leverage over the players, McCain entered the room and kept his mouth shut, the better to avoid a huge blunder. That might have been a smart move, but it doesn't scream of leadership.
