Sen. Maverick McPanic's sudden interest in the economic crisis that caused him to parachute into Washington to save the day (day = his campaign) has had some serious consequences. House and Senate negotiators, along with the Treasury Secretary and Fed Chairman, were making progress on a compromise that would protect taxpayers and homeowners, and establish oversight controls. The meeting at the White House - - convened by Chimpy at the request of the McPanic campaign - - was a photo op that managed to undo the bipartisan progress earlier in the week. When it was his chance to speak, McPanic (who had not even read the Assministration's 3 page proposal until Wednesday) talked in generalities for only 2 minutes, not offering anything substantive (as if). The House's right wing Rethug caucus then proceeded to back out of negotiations with the Assministration/Senate Rethugs/House and Senate Democrats, and offered a proposal which the Treasury Secretary said "wouldn't work."
So it's Rethug against Rethug playing games, while the Dems are trying to be the adults in the room. Meanwhile, McPanic gets his face in the papers and on TV (didn't he suspend his campaign? Oh, right). As Sen. Chris Dodd said, this wasn't about an economic rescue, this was a McPanic campaign rescue.
