It is John McCain and the House Republicans (Far, far, right republicans or conservatives) who are trying to destroy the bailout deal that was on its way to being solidified Thursday afternoon.  Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said as much  yesterday:

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said, “We’re not the ones trying to blow this up; it’s the House Republicans.”

“I know, I know,” Paulson replied.

Until McCain air-dropped down onto Capitol Hill, after an almost six month absence, and caused a break down of the negotiations, Congress was on its way to sealing the deal.  The fundamentals of the deal had been agreed upon and both sides were on their way to a developing consensus.  Then McCain showed up.  A blind man can see through this very obvious and desperate attempt to resuscitate an ailing campaign that is caught in a downward spiral.  The consensus of Republicans and Democrats on th Hill is that McCain severely disrupted the negotiation process by dropping in and injecting presidential politics and partisanship into an almost completed bipartisan effort.  The Arizona senator did not propose an alternative plan, McCain came to DC to cause chaos for the sake of causing chaos.  He was silent almost the entire time during the meeting with Bush.  No offering of solutions or even possibilities.  But it is essential that he be on Capitol Hill at this time (snark). 

House Republicans, consistent with McCain’s belief and tacit support, propose that the bailout be funded through private money.  They also propose a suspension  of  “mark-to-market regulatory rules for long-term assets.”  More deregulation!! Seriously!  The proposal has already been rejected as not feasible by Secretary Paulson, a member of the Republican party by the way.  Free-market, free-market, free-market, free of all government regulation was McCain’s public mantra before last week.  The proposal by the House Republicans is a completely ridiculous non-starter and an obvious ploy by House Republicans to help McCain with his excuse not to show up at the debate tonight and face the American people.  Such Republicans claim that Paulson’s plan “fundamentally alters the nation’s free-market system in that it broadly socializes firms’ money-losing mortgage assets and places the U.S. on a slippery slope whereby profits will also be nationalized.”  Last week, McCain listed his conditions for a bailout plan, the bipartisan proposal included such conditions.  Apparently,  McCain looked at his falling poll numbers and changed his mind.  Lets call it what it is, McCain is gambling with the American economy in order to rehabilitate his campaign.  He is willing to gamble America’s standing in the world to win this election.  And by the way, the world is listening.  The German Minister of Economics is now saying that America will no longer be a powerful nation.  McCain has always been a gambler but now he is a gambler gambling with someone elses money.  McCain first, Country second.