Bad faith

In a turn that should shock no one, it appears that all of the bailout negotiations were really just an attempt to salvage the McCain campaign.

Friday morning, on CBS’s “The Early Show,” Representative Barney Frank of Massachusetts, the lead Democratic negotiator, said the bailout had been derailed by internal Republican politics.

“I didn’t know I was going to be the referee for an internal G.O.P. ideological civil war,” Mr. Frank said, according to The A.P.Thursday, 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.”

It was the very outcome the White House had said it intended to avoid, with partisan presidential politics appearing to trample what had been exceedingly delicate Congressional negotiations.

Senator Christopher J. Dodd, Democrat of Connecticut and chairman of the Senate banking committee, denounced the session as “a rescue plan for John McCain,” and proclaimed it a waste of precious hours that could have been spent negotiating.

Ok, you may be thinking to yourself, “Hey Joe – this is just the Democrats bitching and taking potshots at the Republican’s candidate”. To be honest, I wouldn’t blame you if you did because I was thinking the same thing until I read the very next paragraph.

But a top aide to Mr. Boehner said it was Democrats who had done the political posturing. The aide, Kevin Smith, said Republicans revolted, in part, because they were chafing at what they saw as an attempt by Democrats to jam through an agreement on the bailout early Thursday and deny Mr. McCain an opportunity to participate in the agreement [emphasis mine].

And that is what this was all about – getting McCain’s name on whatever passed so that he could claim it. Now I need to take a minute to let the rage subside…

OK look, I have no idea whether or not the economy is sliding towards another depression but I do know that things are really, really bad. Washington Mutual’s failure last night merely highlights our economic problems. In fact, the state of the economy may actually be bad enough that the sort of government intervention being discussed here is necessary. So if we are to assume that the stakes are really this big, motherfuckers like Boehner and the House GOP are doing us a monumental disservice by scuttling the talks and sacrificing our economic wellbeing at the altar of McCain’s Presidential aspirations, while McCain, motherfucker-in-chief, urges them on. That is not only reckless as Hell but utterly disgraceful, “Country First” indeed. And if the economy tanks, what does McCain care; he has houses like you and I have bills.

If you are looking for an excuse to vote Democratic this cycle, the Republicans just handed you one helluva good one. Those bastards aren’t there to serve you or me or this nation, they are serving themselves; so fuck the lot of 'em.