by Mona Gallagher

Created on: September 27, 2008   Last Updated: October 10, 2008

Fans of mainstream media news might agree with Senate Majority Leader, Harry Reid that McCain's return to Washington was "political theater." When the full story and quotes are collected and analyzed, however, the landscape changes.

It was Harry Reid who said that John McCain must give his approval on the Wall Street bailout. Democrats needed some cover on the issue because it was an unpopular bill with many voters, but it was the same Harry Reid who reversed himself the next day and said that McCain's suspended campaign and return to Washington was a political ploy.

Was it a political ploy? The country was in a crisis mode with the financial world collapsing. I can think of no better reason to return to Washington and assess the issues first hand. That's not to say that everyone agreed on the need for the bailout. McCain followed his conscience and returned at the invitation of the Democratic leaders.

"Fearing a political backlash against Democrats, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) has told the White House that it must serve up support from Republican presidential nominee Sen. John McCain (Ariz.) if it hopes to ensure bipartisan backing for a massive economic bailout package by week's end." [http://www.cfo.com/article.cfm/12288264/c_12287342? f=home_todayinfinance]

If there was a ploy, it was by the Democrat leaders. They announced there was an agreement when there was none and they had excluded the Republicans from the negotiations depending on one or two Republican leaders for "agreement." When McCain appeared in Washington, Reid quickly changed his story to "McCain ruined the negotiations."

Republican leaders let McCain know that they were not part of the bargaining process except for a second ranking Banking Committee member Republican Bob Bennet on the Senate side. Ranking Republican Richard Shelby was against the proposal. In short, the deal was one sided without adequate Republican representation.

It does indeed appear that games were being played, but it also appears that John McCain was the butt of the joke as far as Democrats were concerned.

Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi insisted that the bill be passed with a substantive number of Republican votes favoring the bail out. In truth, Democrats could have passed the bill with the Democrats and the few Republicans that were on the side of the bill.

Why did Pelosi ask for a large or substantive vote from Republicans? It's called CMA. Democrats could have passed the bill without the Republicans.

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