Angry W. House meeting roils Wall St bailout talks (contentious shouting match)

[UpInArms]

Source: Reuters

WASHINGTON, Sept 25 (Reuters) - Negotiations in the U.S. Congress toward a massive bailout for Wall Street fell into disarray on Thursday night after a contentious White House meeting, with lawmakers later offering conflicting reports about the position of presidential candidate Sen. John McCain.

The White House meeting -- attended by McCain, Democratic rival Sen. Barack Obama, President George W. Bush and lawmakers from both parties -- "devolved into a contentious shouting match," according to a statement from the McCain campaign.

"At today's cabinet meeting, John McCain did not attack any proposal or endorse any plan," the statement said.

Senior Democrats said they came away from the afternoon White House session with the impression that McCain was backing an entirely new Wall Street rescue plan, one differing markedly from a Bush administration proposal under discussion for days.

<snip>

"House Republicans, in some kind of arrangement with McCain, went off to wherever. I don't know whether they're ready to negotiate this. Their thing was some totally different mortgage insurance plan ... that would clearly delay this for a week or more," Frank told reporters.

Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/bondsNews/idUSN2513337520080926

---

huh?

[MichiganVote]

1. The maverick on his own dead horse.

[nancyr]

2. It's a trick.

I predict that the Democrats wil wind up with egg on their faces and McCain will be the hero. Nothing is as it seems.

[FVZA_Colonel]

3. McCain's trying to blame Obama, saying he allowed this to happen:

http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/shared-blogs/ajc/politicalinsider/entries/2008/09/25/trouble_brewing_mccain_says_th.html

I'd said it before, and I'll say it again:

Yeah, I'm sure any shouting match that actually occured couldn't have had anything to do with House Republicans suddenly abandoning the plan because of your political ambitions John...

[gopbuster]

4. Isn't that like trying to get insured with pre-existing conditions?n/t

[dipsydoodle]

17. Not really

There's some good stuff and some bad stuff but at present it's impossible to tell the wheat from the chaff. Exactly what's what will come out in the wash at a later date.

[mike_c]

5. I fully support "delaying this thing for a week or more" if that's what...

...the repub "plan" accomplishes. Prominent economists are lining up AGAINST the bail out that dems seem content to rush into. STALL, BABY, STALL!

Die on the vine!

[54anickel]

6. Oh this part is rich...from your article

McCain campaign spokesman Tucker Bounds said, "John McCain has been resolutely on the side of a responsible bipartisan agreement to protect homeowners, taxpayers and Main Street businesses -- he's on the side of a responsible solution."

Speaking after a meeting of House Democrats where lawmakers were briefed on the White House meeting, California Democratic Rep. Henry Waxman said McCain appeared to have embraced the proposal from Cantor, Hensarling and Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan.

"It seems like (McCain) embraced Jeb Hensarling's position ... It's a completely different approach," Waxman said. "It's hard to imagine where we go from here."

snip>

Frank said Hensarling attended the hearing as a committee member, "but he never mentioned an alternative plan."

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said he was "a little stunned" when he heard talk at the White House about a completely new plan drawn up by House Republicans.


Where's that video of Andy Kaufman doing Mighty Mouse?

[UpInArms]

8. check this one out - where they say that McShit was the one that called today's meeting

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/26/us/politics/26campaign.html?ref=politics

Senator John McCain had intended to ride back into Washington on Thursday as a leader who had put aside presidential politics to help broker a solution to the financial crisis. Instead he found himself in the midst of a remarkable partisan showdown, lacking a clear public message for how to bring it to an end.

At the bipartisan White House meeting that Mr. McCain had called for a day earlier, he sat silently for more than 40 minutes, more observer than leader, and then offered only a vague sense of where he stood, said people in the meeting.

In subsequent television interviews, Mr. McCain suggested that he saw the bipartisan plan that came apart at the White House meeting as the proper basis for an eventual agreement, but he did not tip his hand as to whether he would give any support to the alternative put on the table by angry House Republicans, with whom he had met before going to the White House.

He said he was hopeful that a deal could be struck quickly and that he could then show up for his scheduled debate on Friday night against his Democratic rival in the presidential race, Senator Barack Obama. But there was no evidence that he was playing a major role in the frantic efforts on Capitol Hill to put a deal back together again.

On the second floor of the Capitol on Thursday night, Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina and one of Mr. McCain’s closest confidants, complained to a throng of reporters that Democrats were using Mr. McCain as a scapegoat for the failure of the rescue package. But Mr. Graham was met with a barrage of questions on why Mr. McCain never explicitly said he favored the bailout proposal.

...more...

[54anickel]

10. Meanwhile - JPMorgan Buys WaMu Bank Business as Thrift Seized

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=av8gIaGIF6EY&refer=home

Sept. 25 (Bloomberg) -- JPMorgan Chase & Co., the third- biggest U.S. bank by assets, agreed to acquire Washington Mutual Inc.'s deposits and branches for $1.9 billion after regulators seized the thrift in the biggest bank failure in U.S. history.

Customers withdrew $16.7 billion from WaMu accounts since Sept. 16, leaving the Seattle-based bank ``unsound,'' the Office of Thrift Supervision said today. WaMu's branches will open tomorrow and customers will have full access to all their accounts, Sheila Bair, chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., said on a conference call.

WaMu's fate played out as Congress debated an accord to end the global credit crunch that drove Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. and IndyMac Bancorp out of business and led to the hastily arranged rescues of Merrill Lynch & Co. and Bear Stearns Cos., which was itself absorbed by JPMorgan. WaMu in March rebuffed a takeover offer from JPMorgan Chief Executive Officer Jamie Dimon that WaMu valued at $4 a share.

``JPMorgan is getting a steal compared with what they were going to pay,'' said Scott Adams, a pension and investment analyst at the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees in Oakland, California, which owns WaMu shares. ``It's very tragic.''

more...



Oh, and for that Mighty Mouse piece - http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=385x198266

[Albert_Camus]

12. ...closet confidant.....

....tee hee hee......when I read the line about Lindsey Graham, I first read it as "closet confidant" .........which I guess might be accurate too!!

[Demit]

16. Not exactly. The paper says he called FOR the meeting (to happen), which he had.

It was Bush who picked up the hint and called the meeting, but it's accurate to say that McCain called for (suggested) it.

[orwell]

9. The house Repug plan...

...is essentially written by banking lobbyists that have attacked the hill the last week or so.

It is all about tax breaks and deregulation. Sound familiar?

So much for straight talk...

[dixiegrrrrl]

7. McCain...plan ... that would clearly delay this for a week or more,

Translation:

McCain wanted to drag out the process and hide in Washington till after the election.
He said he would not leave until there was a deal.

[AlphaCentauri]

11. The Bail House

from now on

[K8-EEE]

13. But...but...but....I thought McLame predicted a great depression by MONDAY

If they didn't pass the "rescue"

This all seems so fake.

[not fooled]

14. AND

wasn't there only ONE possible plan that would work (Paulson's)??? And the world would end if it wasn't passed ASAP??? Geez, sure sounds like they be LYING to us.

[54anickel]

15. Hey UIA, check out the futures - WaMu fallout?

http://money.cnn.com/data/premarket/

[OakCliffDem]

18. Kicked and Recommended

[aquart]

19. "A week or more"? That means hedge fund meltdown on Oct. 1.

Well, isn't that special.