McCain Is Not Bipartisan

All of the drama that John McCain put into “Suspending his Campaign” to rush back to our nations capitol some 22 hours later was all window dressing. McCain literally claimed that he was going back to the capitol and the Senate to work across party lines to fix the Wall Street disaster. That would be working with the Senate and House of Reps controlled by Democrats right? Umm, only one problem with that thought process from the Senator from Arizona, the closest he got to talking to a Democrat was dinner with Senator Joe Lieberman (I) whom has slapped all Democrats politically in the face in Connecticut. Over at Think Progress they have this to say about McCain being Bipartisan.

McCain Calls For Bipartisan Cooperation On Financial Bailout, But Refuses To Talk With Democrats

On Wednesday afternoon, John McCain claimed to want to put partisanship aside to focus his attention on the financial crisis. “We must meet as Americans, not as Democrats or Republicans, and we must meet until this crisis is resolved,” he said. Yesterday, McCain’s top aide Mark Salter stressed that McCain was “calling members on both sides.”

But throughout his short involvement in the negotiations over the past few days, McCain has talked almost exclusively with Republicans. - Think Progress

Since Senator McCain has been absent for over 160 plus days in the Senate, not voted on one bill since he took the campaign trail, not been seriously privy to inside politics he probably needed to just do some catching up with his close buds. Knowing that both houses of Congress and the President were working on a compromise deal with the financial bailout package, he had no say in the matter and his input was not required. Ergo, “Suspending his Campaign” to work out a Bipartisan deal was just a political stunt.

One thing John McCain has proven in this latest political debacle is this, in the greatest financial crisis this nation has faced since the days of FDR, he not only did not talk to anyone in the opposition political party but he out right ignored them. What does that tell the people that would vote for him to be President? It tells me that voting for McCain is voting for four more years of one political party refusing to talk to the other side of the aisle.

It all proves that John McCain has no intention of ever being Bipartisan if elected President. Welcome to George Bush 3.0!

Papamoka

Bailout Quagmire Courtesy of John McCain

John McCain suspended his campaign to do what most legislators in Washington D.C. do, nothing! He could have done that from the campaign trail. Instead, he declares this banking industry and Wall Street crisis his top priority so he can go the White House and offer nothing to the equation. Did he or did he not say that he was going back to the capitol to end the bipartisan debate and fix the problem? Instead we get more of McSame only this time he’s not even taking sides with his President or the bipartisan group that has put together this bailout package.

Shaking my head in disbelief but this is what Reuters has to say on it…

Angry W. House meeting roils Wall St bailout talks
By Kevin Drawbaugh and Thomas Ferraro

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Negotiations in the U.S. Congress toward a massive bailout for Wall Street fell into disarray on Thursday night after a contentious White House meeting, with lawmakers later offering conflicting reports about the position of presidential candidate Sen. John McCain.

The White House meeting -- attended by McCain, Democratic rival Sen. Barack Obama, President George W. Bush and lawmakers from both parties -- "devolved into a contentious shouting match," according to a statement from the McCain campaign.
"At today's cabinet meeting, John McCain did not attack any proposal or endorse any plan," the statement said.

Senior Democrats said they came away from the afternoon White House session with the impression that McCain was backing an entirely new Wall Street rescue plan, one differing markedly from a Bush administration proposal under discussion for days.

Massachusetts Democratic Rep. Barney Frank, chairman of the House of Representatives Financial Services Committee and a participant in the White House gathering, said negotiations could be set back by the confusion.

"House Republicans, in some kind of arrangement with McCain, went off to wherever. I don't know whether they're ready to negotiate this. Their thing was some totally different mortgage insurance plan ... that would clearly delay this for a week or more," Frank told reporters. - Reuters

Hold the freaking presses. Let me get this straight… President Bush, Senator Chris Dodd, Represenatative Barney Frank, Secretary Paulson, Fed Reserve Chairman Bernake had a working proposal pretty much agreeable to all parties and McCain stepped into the equation and squashed it? To back an insurance plan?

Anyone that knows insurance knows that it is always in favor of the house, just like the odds favor the house in Las Vegas! So we have the Maverick Senator from Arizona coming into the discussion, the Conservative right wing general of his party, the less government, less regulation is best candidate, and he backs a never ending mortgage insurance plan on the backs of the American people? How sweet of a big business, big banks deal is that? Let’s not only put the taxpayers in for $700 Billion Dollars but lets make this pig fest into a never ending feed trough!

John McCain has just shown where his loyalty is and it is not in the interest of homeowners or soon to be homeowners. Now on top of PMI (Private Mortgage Insurance) you will get a double dipper with MMI (McCain Mortgage Insurance) because Wall Street has not raped the American people enough.

Mind you, this insurance that McCain is backing isn’t because you as a homeowner made bad decisions, it’s because the people making bad loans on Wall Street might continue making bad decisions and it’s only fair that all of us be punished for it. Pass out them golden parachutes and screw you Joe Q. Voter.

Vote Obama and vote often!

Papamoka

An Economic Patriot Act?

After watching the events of Washington/Wall Street for the past few weeks, I've been stumped by the lack of the WHY things are going south.

Now I'll admit that with my lack of formal education in economics it would be unwise to trust me with matters financial. Give me a few years and I'd probably cause an economic meltdown due to my ignorance. Oh. Wait. Somebody from Yale or Harvard beat me to it.

This so-called "rescue" plan of Treasury Henry Paulson is emitting a disturbing resemblance to the Patriot Act. Or I should say, the passage of the Patriot Act. Basically it is this: there is no TIME to review it. Pass it. NOW. IMMEDIATELY. Ask your questions later, but uh, by the way, you won't be able to ask questions afterwards because the law will prohibit it. Just do it. The world will end if you don't.

And another thing: take that Constitution and shove it. We don't need no stinkin' Constitution. Sorry for the series of emergencies the past 8 years, but we've got practice at this. There's a fire here people, so just shut up and pass the gasoline.

Let's take a little sidetrip to the 1920's. The "roaring 20's." The name for the decade was derived from the economic "boom," particularly in the stock market. Along came FDR in 1933 and started saving capitalism from its own excesses, and fought every inch by the "investing" class. It wasn't until the advent of World War II that Americans started making money...I mean a LOT of Americans. It produced the solid middle class that endured for 30 years.

Looking back with 20/20 vision, many economists realized that the 1920's weren't so "roaring" after all...at least for farmers and in particular, industrial workers. You see, productivity skyrocketed. A single worker on average was producing double or triple every few years what he or she was producing the year before.

But...but...where did those productivity savings go? To the top. It boiled down to the relatively simple observation that those producing goods and services were not being paid enough to purchase those same goods and services. Post World War II this problem did not exist. The middle class expanded and everyone got fat, dumb, and Republican.

Take a look, particularly in this decade, where productivity gains have gone. It's the same as the 1920's and has been so for several decades. Perhaps the subprime mortgage collapse came about more from underpaid workers than anything else. That is because Wall Street, with its golden blinders on, convinced itself that while Americans stretched their work hours, went deeper and deeper in debt, and saw their real wages fall while productivity increased...that this was as it should be.

The ultimate in chutzpah is Wall Street, over the weekend, devising a new myriad of schemes to profit even further from their galactic gambling. The last two investment banks got the Fed to agree to allow them to become holding companies. That way they can take deposits and pretend to be like a real bank. I remember what Will Rogers said in the 1930's.." A holding company is a thing where you hand an accomplice the goods while the policeman searches you. "

The is the ultimate Bush legacy: a Thelma and Louise, sans Constitution, flying off a cliff.

And we, fellow citizens, are locked in the trunk.

Duke of Madness

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Originally posted at Duke of Madness