McCAIN'S MEDDLING

Razzle-Dazzle is how Matthews described McCain's
showboating with the financail crisis. Indeed,
Matthews applied the term to everything the McCain
has done from the time of selecting Palin until
now. However, the actions of McCain in the last
week are anything but "putting the country first".
Rather, it is what can I, John McCain, do to put
my name first.

In the past week McCain began by trying to tell us
that the economy was strong. I was in NYC at that
very moment, and in a few hours of him making that
statement Lehman Brothers was in collapse. As we
watched employees streaming out with their belongings,
over 10,000 would lose their source of income. Then,
by the end of the week McCain was being the populist,
the man on horseback, rushing back to D.C. to save
the nation, when for 26 years he sat in Washington
passing all the enabling rightist legislation which
permitted this crisis to come to fruition.

Both McCain and Obama are out of the loop in these
negotiations, if any one knows how Congress operates.
Decisions and agreements are reached basically in
committee hearings, and neither one sits on the
Senate Banking Committee. Moreover, while McCain had
no contact for the last 10 days with the Senate Banking
Committee, Obama had been talking numerous times with
Paulson and with Sen. Dodd, the chairman. The actions
of McCain were verified this morning on the early news
program of CNN by Sen. Shelby of the Committee. Shelby
said he had received only one phone call from McCain, and
that was on Wednesday. And, it was Obama who reached out
to McCain and asked that they issue a bipartisan statement
about meeting the immediate financial situation. McCain
then in an hour said he was going to D.C. to rescue this
crisis. Now, the report this morning is that McCain just
sat in at the White House meeting yesterday and made no
contribution.

What appears to have happened, even Pat Buchanan is saying
that McCain has been showboating. It appears McCain wants
to be seen as getting the parties together. At 1 o'clock
yesterday the fundamentals of a plan was announced by the
President and Dems and Reps on the Senate Banking Committee.
None were happy, but the outline of some resolution of the
credit crunch was there and the stock market shot up. But,
McCain arrived back just at that time, met by Sen. Liebermann,
and proceeded over to the House and Bonher of Ohio, and the
'ambush' was developed. As all gathered at the White House,
it was left to Bonher to say he and all House Republicans
would oppose the plan. McCain's game plan is so obvious, do
whatever is necessary to show that he will do anything to
give the impression that he is putting country first. Now,
however, Pat Buchanan is saying that McCain has painted
himself into a corner. If McCain now says he has conferred
with House Republicans and some will join and vote for the
legislation he could lose Right support, and on the otherhand,
if it fails and stock market tanks, McCain will be charged with
the failure. Would it be so, McCain takes himself down, but
unfortunately, it is the United States that suffers......