Breaking news from Washington:
speeds bailout deal
as McCain is expected in Washington
WASHINGTON — Riding in on a white horse he hopes will take him to the White House, Sen. John McCain arrived in Washington with one mission: Hammer out a deal to save the American economy.
The Arizona Republican — and temporarily former presidential candidate — was apparently the chief mover of a bipartisan deal that will allow a Bush administration bailout plan to move forward in the House and Senate and rescue the nation’s financial system.
Congressional leaders from both parties emerged from a three-hour meeting with the outlines of a plan they said should be completed later today so that negotiations with Treasury can take place.
Participants in the meeting, speaking not for attribution, said that McCain’s leadership on the issue — his willingness to suspend his presidential campaign and return to Washington after having not voted in the Senate for six months — helped in hammering out the deal. The fact that he had not arrived in Washington by the time Congressional leaders announced their plan only showed how powerful McCain’s leadership proved to be.
“We’re terrified of him,” said one senator, who asked to remain anonymous to avoid being the target of McCain’s fiery temper. “We knew that if we hadn’t brokered a deal, he would have broken our heads.”
McCain’s cancellation of Friday’s debate — a cancellation that neither the Presidential Debate Commission or Sen. Barack Obama, the Democratic candidate, acknowledge — show how loose a cannon he is, the senator said. He called McCain’s move “weird and odd.”
Another Senate colleague likened McCain to the short-tempered Tommy DeVito, Joe Pesci’s character in Goodfellas.
Hank Kalet 