"He Won't Be A Problem"
by digby
I feel so much better now:
Some senior Democrats on Capitol Hill have voiced concern that McCain will continue to oppose the Bush administration's plan as a way to position himself as a critic of Wall Street and the Bush Administration.
If McCain doesn't vote for the legislation, other Republicans might follow suit, leaving the Democratic-led majority to fight in Congress to pass the risky bailout plan.
However a Democratic congressional leadership source tells ABC News' Jake Tapper that Paulson went so far as to assure Democratic leaders that McCain "won't be a problem" -- in other words that McCain will vote for the proposal.
Trust 'em?
Look, McCain has a long history of playing both sides. The most egregious example was when Harry Reid allowed him to carry the ball on torture (surely this honorable man wouldn't go back on his word on something so important!) and he ended up enabling it. More recently he backed the legislation that exempted the CIA from following the Army Field manual which prohibits torture. Earlier this year he ranted like Huge Chavez on crack against the Boumadiene decision. And yet, he still claims publicly that he is against torture. If the most famously tortured ex-prisoner in the world can play both sides on that issue, then is there any doubt that he is a bad faith actor on the economy when his political future is at stake? Please.
If McCain feels the political need to vote against this measure, he'll have no compunction about stringing along the Democrats until he gets them so far out on a limb that they can't backtrack before he decides that he just can't betray the hard working people of America by voting for it. He sold his soul long ago. He's not going to rediscover it a month before the presidential election.
Update: Via Kos, I see that Newtie is already laying the groundwork for McCain on this.
You'll notice he says that he expects Obama to back the plan...
.