Before John “White Knight” McCain could arrive in Washington to save the day, Massachusetts Representative Barney Frank, Chair of the Financial Services Committee, claims today that Democrats have agreed on a bailout bill. No details have been released at this point, but Frank says the $700 billion figure may not be released all at once, there will be executive compensation limits, and Congress will exercise oversight over the plan.
This bill had been in negotiations for days before John McCain decided he HAD to give it his full attention. McCain can two things right now: support the Frank bill (probably Dodd’s bill in the Senate) or derail it. If he wants to support it he needs to work on his conservative Republican colleagues. Of course, he doesn’t need to do that in Washington.
Either way, McCain’s campaign suspension gambit looks even more absurd now. This afternoon John McCain claimed that the bailout deal was “dead” and he needed to revive it. People in the know understood that that was BS.
Obviously, the Administration could oppose the bill at the end, though Frank worked out the details in consultation with Paulson. And right after Bush’s speech it’s hard to imagine him rejecting this bill.
Off topic, but I should mention that Barney Frank is actually a cousin of mine. He’s actually my maternal grandmother’s first cousin (don’t know what that makes me). I’ve never actually met him or his sister Ann Lewis. When I told my far-right father-in-law about being related to Barney Frank he scowled, “Well, I guess we all have skeletons in our closets.” I don’t think he meant the double entendre…