Like Bush in Iraq, John McCain declared victory before the war was over.
Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and his top aides took credit for building a winning bailout coalition – hours before the vote failed and stocks tanked.
The rush to claim he had engineered a victory now looks like a strategic blunder that will prolong the McCain’s campaign’s difficulty in finding a winning message on the economy.
Shortly before the vote, McCain had bragged about his involvement and mocked Sen. Barack Obama for staying on the sidelines.
Perhaps McCain will suspend his campaign again. Permanently. Or we’ll just do it for him in a month.
I’m an atheist, but I’m starting to think there’s a higher power fucking with this man.
… Oh dear god… It’s the Republicans. … That’s not to say they are a ‘higher’ power, but maybe they fucked over McCain because he’s pissed off rank and file Republicans too much.
That would be awesome.
Only liberal bloggers and their sycophants are happy today.
Major Pyrrhic victory. Just awesome.
Uncork the champagne.
Oliver, please can I borrow some of your kryptonite? There’s a big cloud of STOOPID heading here from Washington… it’s already seeped into my stock portfolio… it’s darkening the sky…
Oh, never mind… it’s too late.
P.S. Did you hear McCain blaming Obama for the bill’s failure? It’s playing several degrees below petty and partisan, sounds totally demented. Glad the MSM make it sound that way, intentionally or not.
Who runs Congress again?
Some people who appear to have found their long-missing spines.
Black people are to blame for the failure of the bill to pass.
This was a Pelosi failure more than anyone else’s. She couldn’t scrape up more than 60% of the Democrats to vote for it, and JUST BEFORE THE VOTE makes a point of pissing all over the Republicans, who then voted 2/3 against the bill.
If she’d swung a mere 11 Democrats (possibly 10) of the 94 who voted no, then it would have passed.
Good god, has there EVER been a more inept Speaker?
J.
It appears that Pelosi can’t take full credit for it:
Darn it all…
J.
Yeah Jay…you just keep on with that. You guys need some Kleenex? Or should we call the WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAMBULANCE?
JUST BEFORE THE VOTE makes a point of pissing all over the Republicans, who then voted 2/3 against the bill.
So you’re saying some Republicans in the House voted against the bailout for the reason that Nancy Pelosi said mean things?
Country first!
The GOP leadership at the negotiating table had an obligation to do their part. They couldn’t muster sufficient backing from their side to make it pass, so they were not exactly bargaining in good faith. If they weren’t going to be able to get the votes, they should have found out what was needed to get it passed, rather than wasting days on pointless negotiations.
Pelosi had no reason to trust them, as it turned out – and she didn’t want to be left holding the bag of shit alone.
So I’m curious, Mr. Tea. What is it that SanFranNan said that upset the House GOP so much that they decided not to vote for saving the world economy?
Jay Tea–
The Dems got their votes—and it’s so sad that the Repugs–didn’t. They are a bit whiney doncha know . . . Nancy hurt their feelings–huh?
Spin it any way that will make you feel better, but McCain’s surrogates have been crowing for days that all of this was going to happen because of ole John. And you know what, for once— they were RIGHT!
We’ve heard how the whole economic mess is the Republicans’ fault because they held the majority (as long as you ignore the endless video of congressional Democrats talking about how all the Republicans warning about what just happened as “fear-mongering” and whatnot) while a lot of it built up. Now we have a Democratic Speaker who has a Democratic majority and NO filibuster rules who can’t even muster over 60% of her own party to back a bill she supports.
A Speaker who brings a bill that she supports, and then fails to get it passed, has shown she has NO idea what she’s doing. But then again, that’s been obvious since she first took office.
Oh, and one very inconvenient truth: John McCain is a Senator. The bill failed in the House. I dunno HOW you spin the results of a House vote on a Senator, and excuse the Speaker who brought it to a vote planning it to pass, but I’m impressed you’re even trying.
J.
Certainly didn’t stop Johnny Mac from blaming Obama for single-handedly causing it to fail.
Isn’t Barack a senator too?
Shorther Jay & asshead John Boehner “We were going to do what was needed to secure the retirement savings of millions of Americans and prop up the underpinning of our entire financial structure, but then that mean Nancy Pelosi hurt our widdle feelings!”
Further proof that the modern Republican party is comprised entirely of foot-stomping pacifier-sucking whiny-ass-titty-baby douchebags.
Christ Almighty I can’t wait for grown ups to be in charge of this country again!
Oh, and while we’re at it: About two-thirds of House Democrats supported the bill. About two thirds of House Republicans—whom McCain had explicitly returned to Washington to work—voted against it.
Yep, guess McCain was right that he “never won miss Congeniality”… so much so that his entire goddamn caucus hates him! Hahahahaha! The implosion of the Republican party in November will truly be a sight to behold! (I told my neighbor yesterday that I plan to take the day after the election off to spend doing nothing but drinking fine wine and reading wingnut blogs and listening to Rush and Hannity, to lose myself in the delicious nectar of schadenfreude…)
Congratulations on diverting attention the the original point of this post: that John McCain prematurely claimed credit “for building a winning bailout coalition”.
(I wonder if he made a banner ad for that as well, to go along with his clairvoyant “McCain Wins Debate” fail)
No desperate fingerpointing at others can scrub the epic fail of John McCain’s “Mission Accomplished” moment
The only question I have is this: is Pelosi playing a game, or is she really, really that stupid?
Before McCain came in to work with the House Republicans, the Democrats in the House held a meeting to work on a bill — and did not invite any Republicans to come in. Then, later, they denounced the Republicans for not attending a meeting from which they were excluded. Also, the House Republicans were being completely shut out of the discussions over the bailout.
McCain came in demanding — and getting — them a seat at the table, largely because Pelosi realized how bad it would look if the bill passed the House on a purely partisan basis. It was a very shaky deal, but it was pretty much the best anyone could do.
And then, at the last moment, Pelosi decides just before the vote to go off on a partisan tear and piss all over the Republicans, blaming them for every single bit of the current problem — ignoring the thoroughly-documented role certain specific Democrats played in sending it all down the toilet.
So, here’s the question: did Pelosi deliberately scuttle the deal, or is she really, really that incredibly stupid and incompetent?
“Never ascribe to malice that which can be adequately explained by incompetence.” On that basis, i’m going to stick with my theory: Pelosi IS that stupid.
J.
A couple of names missing from your little summary, Mr. Tea: Bush? Paulson? Didn’t those guys have any influence on the outcome?
Jay Tea says:
“A Speaker who brings a bill that she supports, and then fails to get it passed, has shown she has NO idea what she’s doing.”
Which is why she would have never introduced the bill if Boehner hadnt promised her 80 votes; he delivered 65. EPIC REPUB FAILURE blamed on a speach that was to mean. But this country is getting used to EPIC REPUB FAILURES.
A bailout is fundamentally against the small government and deregulaton that the Republicans champion. Getting them to vote for this thing right before an election would be Herculean.
Most of the Republicans who voted “no” hold unsafe seats. Now they can vote “yes” for the next thing that comes along and go home to their voters and say, “Well, I tried.”
I’m surprised the bailout isn’t set to a much lower funding limit and set to expire in March or April, forcing the next administration to finish the job in their first 100 days and live with the consequences.
And yeah, given that both Obama and McCain are senators, I have no idea how they’re supposed to have any effect on a House vote. Which is why I was surprised when McCain halted his campaign (read: canceled on Letterman) to jump into a situation that already had too many cooks. I’m looking forward to seeing him finish what he started, just out of amusement.
Not as much as the Speaker, whose party could have passed the bill without a single Republican vote if they’d so wished to.
The Executive Branch has exactly one direct way of influencing the Legislature: the vice-president can break ties in the Senate. When it comes to the House, they can’t do a damned thing.
But the Speaker can. And didn’t.
J.
No Quaker…much like Ike, Katrina, 911, this whole mess is the Democrats fault. You should know this by now. Republicans are TOTALLY innocent.
To summarize:
House Speaker gets 60 percent of her party to back a bill she supports = fail
President of the USA gets 30 percent of his party to back a bill he supports = not his fault
Thanks for stopping by, Mr. Tea.
The problem is McCain declared victory this morning. The Dems got most of their people on board, where McCain and the GOP couldn’t. The bill isn’t good, but McCain gets the fail here for his premature celebration.
The problem is that MccCain declared victory this morning. That gave Pelosi time to scuttle the vote and make McCain look foolish. The other consequences — whether or not the bill should have been passed — are irrelevant; the only important thing here is that McCain can not be allowed to get any credit.
I note that Oliver hasn’t discussed whether or not he supported the bailout bill. So far, all he seems concerned about is the short-term political ramifications for it — it’s good that it failed because that makes McCain look bad. Nothing on the actual merits of the bill.
J.
Ahhh Jay Tea,
The Speaker, The Speaker . . .
So—Democrat Nancy Pelosi has more sway with house republicans than Bush, Boehner, Paulsen AND McCain? Wow–if only her powers of persuasion had been working all the other times.
Even though I’m pretty sure FOX is blaming Obama’s kids at this point . . .
Andrew Sullivan “The GOP killed it”
GOP Strategist Ed Rollins “Bailout failure will hurt McCain”
Marc Armbinder “If McCain wanted credit for passage-should share blame for its defeat.
Joe Klein-Time “McCain’s Puerile Histrionics hurt bailout”
White house disappointed . . .
Chris Matthews (eeewww) Blames Bailout mess on McCains weak leadership.
But–Nancy being mean–did it?
Premature celebration? Here’s premature celebration, just two nights ago:
A Picture Worth 1,000 Words About The Bailout
Just look at Pelosi and Reid, then ‘Friend of Angelo’ Chris Dodd in the background in a full-throated guffaw.
The economy and the financial world in a collapse barely few people alive have witnessed and these people are whooping it up.
Epic fail for Pelosi and Co. Epic.
What does it matter about Pelosi’s speech? That she is a failure at being a House Leader is apparent. However, to even begin to try to make the assertion that the republicans who claim “we didn’t vote ‘yes’ because of her bitter partisan speech” are somehow CORRECT or NOT TO BE HELD GUILTY for this is Spin At Its Highest.
And yes, McCain’s campaign is in trouble because of their premature victory dance. Don’t dance until the music starts, people. You look like asses when the music isn’t dance music.
Leota, as noted, the House is a very independent body when it comes to outside influences. The Speaker couldn’t persuade 11 more Democrats to back the bill?
Pelosi is an idiot. And the House Democrats who put that idiot in such a position of power are idiots. too, for doing that.
Pelosi is the Speaker of the House, the leader of all 435 members. But she acts like she is the Majority Leader, and routinely pisses all over the 199 members who don’t belong to her party.
The Democrats have the power to pass any bills they like in the House — they have 235 seats, and it only takes 218 to pass a bill. (Filibustering is not allowed in the House.) Therefore, they “own” all the House’s successes and failures. (This is the same logic that lets folks blame the failure of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac on Republicans, who tried like hell to reform it a couple times in the past few years and were thwarted by determined Democratic resistance, but with more justification.)
The House failed to pass the bill. Therefore, it is the Democrats’ fault. And John McCain’s biggest failure was in believing that the Democratic-controlled House would actually get its act together and do something the leadership pledged it would.
J.
a full-throated guffaw
How old were you when you learned to speak English?
The Democrats have the power to pass any bills they like in the House — they have 235 seats, and it only takes 218 to pass a bill…Therefore, they “own” all the House’s successes and failures.
I see. Then why all the posturing about mean ol’ Nan and her mean ol’ speech? Why all the grandstanding by Mr. McCain as he “suspends” his campaign to hurry to Washington? Why the urging from the White House and especially from Secretary Paulson?
Why not just…ahem…cut and run?
It’s okay Jay Tea—I’d be cranky too . . . .
You’ll have to excuse Jay…it’s past his bedtime
I note that Oliver hasn’t discussed whether or not he supported the bailout bill.
Me, right above that: “The bill isn’t good”
The right would love nothing more than for Speaker Pelosi to ram the bill through and take all the blame. No way. You guys are jumping with us or we don’t jump at all.
Oh dear, the righties seem to be under the impression that anyone but the GOP wanted this bill to go through. Nope. It ain’t a Pyhrric victory; it’s regular kind.
Me, right above that: “The bill isn’t good”
The right would love nothing more than for Speaker Pelosi to ram the bill through and take all the blame. No way. You guys are jumping with us or we don’t jump at all.
Of course it’s not a great bill, but it had to work to avoid what we just go. If you don’t have money in the market and you don’t care what happened, fine. But Pelosi got overconfident and delivered a ‘blame Republicans’ speech that she didn’t need to give. Leadership was required of her and she didn’t provide it today. She f’ed up, and no one here has the stones to admit it. All that matters is it hurts McCain. $1.1 trillion dollars of market value, gone. Much more likely tomorrow.
I hope she sleeps well tonight.
real profile in courage there, O. the price of leadership is that once in a while, you actually have to… you know … lead.
Good god, has there EVER been a more inept Speaker?
Oh yes.
What O-dub said. The Republican strategery was to put up a bill that would pass, but only marginally. That way Republicans could actually turn against the bill and Pelosi and scream about “libruls giving away tax payer’s money!”
The reason Jay is once again so apoplectic is that Pelosi actually out-maneuvered the GOP, McCain included. She held a finger in the wind and saw that Boehner was lying about how many votes he could deliver. So yeah, she knew it would fail, but she wasn’t going to fall into the Repug trap of working to pass a bill that would leave her holding the proverbial bag of shit all by herself.
As for McCain, he accomplished nothing. He threw his little hissy fit, made himself look like a major drama queen, and now has less than nothing to show for it. As for working on a new bill, Pelosi is now holding more cards than ever. People (including Bush II) are going to clamor for a bill, and what we’re going to get will be relatively bi-partisan in nature. I expect Obama will be asked for his opinions as to safe-guards for American tax-payers. John McCain? Not so much. He’s an erratic, pissy-pants little whiner, and the American people are sick of him and his little tantrums.
But Pelosi got overconfident and delivered a ‘blame Republicans’ speech
Really? Which Republicans did she blame? What did she say?
PD, don’t forget Denny “Double Grand Slam Breakfast” Hastert.
That gave Pelosi time to scuttle the vote and make McCain look foolish.
First she was incompetent. Now she’s malicious. Pick a story and stick to it, willya?
My apologies, Quaker. “Scuttle” does bear the implication of intent. I don’t think Pelosi deliberately ruined the bill. I think she just opened her mouth, blabbed what she thought, didn’t think that there would be any consequences, and was — as usual — wrong.
How the HELL did you Democrats decide to make HER Speaker?
J.
Because we kicked your asses in 2006.
I’m not saying I’m a 100% Pelosi fan – because I’m not – but the Republican/con excuse machine now trying to blame Pelosi for making a speech in the course of trying to dig America out of the ditch that Bush and the GOP dug is laughable if you weren’t one of this country’s two major political parties.
Once again, a Democrat is going to have to clean up a Republican mess. President Roosevelt, President Clinton, we get it now.
[...] might be a great time for McCain to suspend his campaign, but this time for REAL and also for an indefinite time period; SilentPatriot of Crooks and Liars says this wasn’t just a “failure” for Panama [...]
Jay teabags, you asked how one could point at McSame when he is a Senator but the house is where it was defeated? It’s really simple enough that even a repuiblickan should be able to understand. John McSame is the LEADER of the Repuiblickan party. He couldn’t get anywhere close to a majority from his own party to vote for it, after claiming in advance how he would sweep in and save it. What an incompetent, confused, lost, old man. How sad.
President Obama(get used to it) PRODUCED his majority. Where was poor old John the saviour McSame? Ignored and rejected by his own PARTY! What a great leader.
Dennis: “But Pelosi got overconfident and delivered a ‘blame Republicans’ speech that she didn’t need to give.”
Liar.
I don’t think Pelosi deliberately ruined the bill. I think she just opened her mouth, blabbed what she thought, didn’t think that there would be any consequences, and was — as usual — wrong.
And those consequences were what, Mr. Tea? The House GOP was so offended at being accused of causing the problem that they voted against fixing the problem?
Know what? That’s really dumb.
Oliver, please. I didn’t ask “how come a Democrat got to be Speaker” — that was pretty obvious. What I was asking was “of the 231 Democrats in the House to choose from, how the hell did you choose THIS idiot to be Speaker?”
And Strowbridge, where did I say that the Democrats had a monopoly on dumb in the House? After hammering out a bipartisan deal that everyone says is so damned important, why in the HELL would the titular leader of the House go and do her damnedest to portray the situation in the most partisan terms? Why would she try to, at the last minute, make it a very, very partisan matter? Here’s my explanation — because she is so frakking DUMB, she didn’t realize that there are also some stupid Republicans who would react to her naked partisanship in a very partisan way.
It should come as no surprise that there are some very childish people in the House. What should come as appalling to everyone is that one party thought to elevate one of them to the Speaker’s seat.
J.
“Why would she try to, at the last minute, make it a very, very partisan matter?”
It’s a mystery. Hm. Maybe SHE DIDN’T, YOU CRETIN. It was already partisan, like everything else. “Bipartisanship” died in 1994. The Dems only just realised it, and they still don’t fully get it.
“Here’s my explanation — because she is so frakking DUMB, she didn’t realize that there are also some stupid Republicans who would react to her naked partisanship in a very partisan way.”
Well OF COURSE she deserved to be raped if she was naked. That really is dumb of her. It’s always the victim’s fault, if they’re a woman at least.
“It should come as no surprise that there are some very childish people in the House. What should come as appalling to everyone is that one party thought to elevate one of them to the Speaker’s seat.”
Yes, damn it! Why didn’t the Democrats choose a Republican!?
“This idiot” just managed to make your presidential candidate look incredibly foolish.
I welcome more activity from “this idiot” in the future.
Not to mention your entire party, particularly its Congressional leadership. Important to remember that.
I find it funny that Jay Tea is whining about Pelosi’s “speech” (which I have yet to see a transcript of), but not about the baby republicans who voted against the bill. If they thought that the bill was a good thing, wouldn’t they essentially be punishing the country for Pelosi’s “speech”? So my main question is this:
Jay (Tea), why do you hate America so much?
Jay,
I response to your question,
What I was asking was “of the 231 Democrats in the House to choose from, how the hell did you choose THIS idiot to be Speaker?”
You should ask yourself, of the 300 million people in the United States, how did WE choose THIS idiot to be President?(as in the current occupant)
I’ll answer your question, Luke: speaking for myself, I looked at the alternative put up by the Democrats and said “he can not possibly be as bad as THAT guy!” And considering the alternatives were Al Gore and John Kerry, I’ll stand by that.
Now, I asked a question and you not only didn’t answer it, but asked one back. I answered yours; will you answer mine? Is there ANYONE who thinks that Nancy Pelosi was the best choice to be Speaker?
J.
Here’s an alternative interpretation, Mr. Tea.
Mssrs. Bush and Paulson asked for this bailout. The Democratic leadership in the House agreed to go along, but only reluctantly. Before setting up the Democratic delegation to pass a very expensive and controversial bill, Ms. Pelosi sought to hang the need for the bill on the policies of the White House.
So now the House GOP is in the position of opposing Mr. Bush’s bailout because they don’t like anyone pointing out the rather obvious fact that Mr. Bush was at the helm when the ship went down.
Country first!
speaking for myself, I looked at the alternative put up by the Democrats and said “he can not possibly be as bad as THAT guy!” And considering the alternatives were Al Gore and John Kerry, I’ll stand by that.
You were wrong then and you’re wrong now. I didn’t like Gore or Kerry either, but I knew they were better than the frat boy.
Anyone who thinks Kerry or Gore would have done worse than Bush is a fucking idiot. Seriously.
“And considering the alternatives were Al Gore and John Kerry, I’ll stand by that.”
Saying something like that should be enough to get someone committed.
“Is there ANYONE who thinks that Nancy Pelosi was the best choice to be Speaker?”
‘Best’ doesn’t exist as an option. It’s like arguing what’s the best movie ever made; there’s no objective way to answer that.
I’m sure there’s someone out there that could do better, but she’s done a damn fine job. My only complaint is she hasn’t stood up to the Fucking Retard Party enough, but given the state of the Senate, there’s not much chance she could do that and win.
Jay Tea, Sep 30th, 2008 at 11:33 am
I’ll answer your question, Luke: speaking for myself, I looked at the alternative put up by the Democrats and said “he can not possibly be as bad as THAT guy!” And considering the alternatives were Al Gore and John Kerry, I’ll stand by that.
In an alternate timeline, President Gore is taking comments from people like Jay Tea under advisement, while trying to figure out what to do with all of the extra surplus he put in the lockbox after eight years of a successful america almost weaned off of fossil fuels. And having shivers go down his spine every once in a while when he imagines what america would be like if the illegally installed drunken cokeheaded deserter actually stole the election in 2000.
Seriously? You really think that eight years of the pretzeldunce handing over the economy to the fat cats is better than what Gore would have done? You really think that it was a good thing for the Republican’t running the country for the last eight years to lie his a$$ off to the american people, legalize torture, declare himself and his sycophants to be above the law, and murder thousands of american soldiers half way around the world?
Hey, I know – how about a pithy comeback with personal insults about me, and a lack of response to anything I’ve said, as you usually do. Or you could just sulk off in a corner and say you’re not voting for anything anymore because a non-Republican’t didn’t say nice things to you all day every day…