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Politics : Politics for Pros- moderated -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: MulhollandDrive who wrote (270387)	9/25/2008 8:42:08 PM
From: Ruffian	Respond to of 794261

Dems Blast McCain After Bailout Negotiations Go Sour by FOXNews.com Thursday, September 25, 2008 Barack Obama and his Democratic colleagues in Congress blasted John McCain on Thursday, accusing him of injecting presidential politics into the high-stakes debate on Capitol Hill over economic bailout legislation. The round of recriminations came after the two rival candidates left what was supposed to be a landmark summit with President Bush and congressional leaders without any agreement reached on how to solve the financial crisis. Aides and officials in the meeting said the discussion ended badly, with Democrats fuming at House Republicans over their refusal to drop objections to the administration’s proposal. But they also spread the blame to the Republican presidential nominee, who on Wednesday announced he was suspending his campaign to work on the negotiations, and called for such a high-level meeting of candidates and officials in Washington, D.C. “Here’s my observation and I think this may have been confirmed at the meeting today — when you inject presidential politics into delicate negotiations, sometimes it’s not helpful. The cameras change things,” Obama told FOX News after the meeting ended. “It’s not clear to me that having presidential candidates in a high-profile way in the negotiating process is useful.” Democratic leaders on Capitol Hill were more blunt. “We don’t need presidential politics involved in this,” Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said, accusing McCain of saying nothing substantive in the meeting. “John McCain hasn’t voted in the Senate since sometime last April. And I say very sincerely that he has done nothing since he’s been here the last few hours to help this process.” “He’s slowed it down,” Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., said of McCain’s impact on the negotiations. McCain on Wednesday also called for the kickoff presidential debate scheduled for Friday to be postponed, but Obama reiterated his position Thursday that the debate should go forward. “One of us is going to be in charge of this mess in four months, and the American people, I think, not only have a right but an obligation to find out where we want to take the country,” Obama said at a press conference. “My hope is that the debate goes forward and I intend to be there.” His campaign circulated a memo shortly after the White House meeting ended accusing McCain of disingenuously suspending his campaign. “Make no mistake: John McCain did not ’suspend’ his campaign,” spokesman Bill Burton said in the memo, criticizing McCain for continuing to do media interviews. “He just turned a national crisis into an occasion to promote his campaign. It’s become just another political stunt, aimed more at shoring up the senator’s … political fortunes than the nation’s economy.” McCain, for his part, said Congress and the Bush administration are making progress toward an agreement on a rescue of the financial sector. The Republican presidential nominee said some in Congress have “legitimate concerns” about the big price tag for taxpayers. But he says those critics also are aware of the crisis situation the country faces. His campaign rejected suggestions that his presence was hampering negotiations. Senior adviser Nancy Pfotenhauer told FOX News that the disagreement on Capitol Hill on Thursday could have been expected, and it was that looming discord that prompted McCain to head to Washington in the first place. “I don’t know why people are shocked that that kind of played out tonight,” she said. Adviser Steve Schmidt also accused the Obama campaign of acting in a “in a political predatory fashion” by “swooping in” and buying up advertising time that McCain has released in order to focus on the economic crisis. He said McCain was working the phones Thursday night, trying to round up the votes to get the legislation passed. He also said that McCain is still hoping to be at the debate and is looking forward to debating Obama. “He’s been excited and looking forward to these debates. He had actually hoped this would be the 11th debate of the campaign, not the first,” he said, in a reference to Obama’s refusal to join him for joint town hall meetings. “Senator Obama said he would debate anywhere, anyplace, anytime. He refused to do that.” FOX News’ Mosheh Oinounou and The Associated Press contributed to this report.