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Confusion and Incoherence About the Bailout

One problem with the accounts out of Washington yesterday is that all parties were trying to fit the facts on the ground with the political narrative they hoped would become the conventional wisdom.

Here's an account that Obama is to blame and that the Democrats ambushed Republicans.

It was McCain who had urged Bush to call the White House meeting but Democrats made sure Obama had a prominent part. And much as they complained later of being blindsided, the whole event turned out to be something of an ambush on their part?aimed at McCain and House Republicans.

?Speaking professionally,? said one Republican aide, ?They did a very good job.?

When Bush yielded early to Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D- Nev.) to speak, they yielded to Obama to speak for the assembled Democrats. And it was Obama who raised the subject of the conservative alternative and pressed Paulson on what he thought of the idea.

House Republicans felt trapped?squeezed by Treasury, House Democrats and a bipartisan coalition in the Senate. And while McCain spoke surprisingly little after asking for the meeting, he conceded that it appeared there were not the votes for the core Paulson plan without major changes.

McCain said the votes aren't there for the Paulsen plan? Why is that? Even if every Republican voted no, there's actually something called a Democratic majority in the House. Is there a House equivalent of the filibuster that I don't know about? Why would McCain say that there "aren't the votes?"

It sounds like the whole account is based on piecemeal relays of information, each of which is motivated by political narratives hoping their guy comes out looking good.

Full post as published by Expressio Unius on September 26, 2008 (boomark / email).