John McCain suspended his campaign to return to Washington to help achieve a deal to resolve the financial crisis. Harry Reid immediately objected to McCain’s involvement:
“It would not be helpful at this time to have them come back during these negotiations and risk injecting presidential politics into this process or distract important talks about the future of our nation’s economy. If that changes, we will call upon them. We need leadership; not a campaign photo op.”
But it is amazing how Reid unashamedly contradicts himself merely to place plame and score cheap political points. As noted by the Politico, Harry Reid had earlier said:
“I should mention how glad my fellow Democrats and I were to have our nominee for president here to vote on these important bills. Senator Obama has come to work and taken tough stands. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for Senator McCain,” Reid said. “Perhaps taking tough stands on important issues is not part of Senator McCain’s campaign strategy. Perhaps he’s just too busy on the campaign trail to do his day job.”
And only the day before McCain announced he was suspending his campaign to help attain a deal, Harry Reid had this:
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is watching Republicans in both chambers, one after another, criticize the Wall Street bailout, but he says he’s not going to let them off the hook by passing the bill and letting the GOP cast soft “no” votes against the plan.
“This is a Republican proposal, and we need some Republican votes,” to help it pass. “At this stage we [Democrats] are working with ourselves.”
Reid went on to say in the same statement:
“We now need Republicans to stand up,” Reid said. “We need the Republican nominee for president to say what he’s for.”
Now, given Reid’s documented pandering, lying, hypocrisy, and political gamesmanship, it should be little wonder that Harry Reid would come out and say this:
“John McCain did nothing to help. He only hurt the process.”
And:
“Senate Democrats, House Democrats, and Senate Republicans agree those principles laid out by Senator Obama are the ones that must be implanted with regards to the issue, what’s called the ‘principles of fairness.’ … The insertion of presidential politics has not been helpful. It’s been harmful … A few days ago I called on Senator McCain to take a stand, let us know where he stands on this issue … But all he has done is stand in front of the cameras. We still don’t know where he stands on the issue.”
Charles Schumer was among the many Democrats jumping on the hard-core partisan Democratic bandwagon:
Schumer also requested that Bush get the his House Republicans in line. “We need President Bush to take leadership. We need President Bush, first and foremost, to get the Republican House members to support his plan or modify it in some way to bring them on board,” he said.
He added, “When you inject presidential politics into some of the most difficult negotiations under normal circumstances, it is fraught with difficulty. Before McCain made his announcement, we were making great progress. Now after his announcement, we are behind the 8 ball. We have to put things back together again.”
But first of all, can you not see that these tactics themselves are nothing more than naked presidential politics? Reid and Schumer and all the other Democrats stuffing this “presidential politics” talking point are engaging in presidential politics themselves. They are cynically and despicably putting presidential politics ahead of the nation’s vital business.
Harry Reid and Charles Schumer deceitfully and disengenuously claimed that a deal was on the table before John McCain arrived, and McCain had ruined it. As Reid claimed:
“We had [Republican] Senator [Bob] Bennett, a high ranking official, who said these are the principles,” Reid said of the early potential compromise on the $700 billion package. “And then, guess who came to town? And it all fell apart.”
But that isn’t even close to being true; House Republicans had not been allowed to take part in the discussion (which you can even see by way of Reid’s omission of House Republicans above).
House Republicans are balking at horrible elements of this deal, such as giving billions of dollars to the control of voter-fraud organization ACORN. That was came out in the Senate Republican meeting.
Sen Lindsey Graham: ‘There was never any agreement on a bailout bill – Dems lied’ (Dems want money to go to ACORN – Updated):
Lindsay Graham on Fox Now. Says there was never any agreement on bailout bill between dems and Repubs. Best nugget: Dems have inserted provision into their bill to give several billion (with a “b”) dollars to ACORN. ACORN is probably the most corrupt organized crime organization involved in voting fraud and intimidation.
There is no bill. Rep. Barney Frank was on MSNBC wailing about Repub treachery and bad-mouting all the Repubs who met today with Bush. Chris Dodd said, “I’m going home” and walked out.
My sense is that the Dems tried to bully McCain into supporting the Dem bill. When he refused, they had a tantrum.
House Republicans want to slow this down so that a bailout that is currently opposed by nearly 2/3 of Americans won’t be packed with wasteful and fraudulent spending that lines the pockets of people who don’t deserve the money, while failing to fix the crisis.
There is certainly no reason for John McCain NOT to go ahead with the debates. When Democrats like Harry Reid repeatedly blast McCain for being THE problem – and for just just wanting to get in front of cameras (which is frankly weird, considering the fact that it’s been Harry Reid and NOT John McCain in front of all the cameras) – there is little John McCain can do. When Harry Reid’s are out literally hysterically attacking Republicans in the most politically partisan and demagogic way imaginable, McCain is wise to remove himself.
So go debate, John. I’m hoping you can clean Obama’s clock tonight, and then return to Washington to help deal with this impending financial meltdown.