Last week

So last week I was and continue to be in too much shock to know where to begin, but my good pal Zach Scott summed it up pretty well, I thought. I'm gonna go ask him if I can use this now.

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The past few days have been pretty eventful.

1. Financial system on the brink of collapse (again)
2. John McCain decides that the nation needs a hero, "suspends" his campaign, asks Obama to postpone debate, pisses off David Letterman:



3. McCain campaign suggests that it will continue to be suspended until a bailout deal is reached (it turns out he doesn't actually suspend his campaign, because for the remainder of Wednesday evening and Thursday, his ads continue to run across the country, and his talking heads continue to make appearances on all of the networks).

4. Meanwhile, Sarah Palin gives an interview so bad that it actually becomes national news:



5. Obama campaign: Uh...why is the debate canceled? Isn't this the sort of time when people should really find out what the next President thinks about important issues? His campaign says that they'll be in Mississippi for the debate, even if McCain will not. The prospect of Obama being alone on the debate stage for 1 1/2 hours on primetime television actually becomes possible for a brief time.

6. McCain, arriving in DC for crucial negotiations on the financial bailout,twiddles his thumbs for an hour, then mutters something about a House Republican proposal that he can barely defend or understand. Read all about it! McCain suspends campaign to rush back to Washington and destroy consensus! With Senate Republicans, Senate Democrats, and House Democrats all strongly behind the bill, McCain decides to support an entirely different bill proposed by half of the House Republicans, and things get heated.


Politico:
After a wild meeting at the White House, House Financial Service Committee Chairman Barney Frank (D-Mass.) was asked whether the Congress and the president were close to a deal.

“Yes and no,” he said. "We're closer to a deal between House Democrats, Senate Democrats, Senate Republicans and the administration. I cannot tell you, but we seem further away with the House Republicans because we thought we might have some differences of opinion over the president's approach. They're now talking about a very different approach."

Frank bashed McCain for becoming involved in the bailout talks, suggesting he was doing it only for political gain in the presidential race.

"I think Sen. McCain was hurting politically on the economic issue," Frank just told reporters. "I think this was a campaign ploy for Sen. McCain. I think they then had this problem that there might not have been enough of a deadlock for him to resolve. I don't know what motivated what, but the next thing we know, he's in a position, frankly, where he's making it harder to get things done rather than negotiate differences.

"He's slowed it down, I don't know whether he caused it or what," Frank said. "We are trying to put it back together."

NYT:
In the Roosevelt Room after the session, the Treasury secretary, Henry M. Paulson Jr., literally bent down on one knee as he pleaded with Ms. Pelosi not to “blow it up” by withdrawing her party’s support for the package over what Ms. Pelosi derided as a Republican betrayal.

“I didn’t know you were Catholic,” Ms. Pelosi said, a wry reference to Mr. Paulson’s kneeling, according to someone who observed the exchange. She went on: “It’s not me blowing this up, it’s the Republicans.”

Mr. Paulson sighed. “I know. I know.”

It was the very outcome the White House had said it intended to avoid, with partisan presidential politics appearing to trample what had been exceedingly delicate Congressional negotiations.

Later that night, McCain high-fives the Prince of Darkness in his Mid-Manhattan hotel suite as he lights a cigar from the smoldering ashes of dead babies and sweet grandmothers who died as they were preparing pumpkin pies for 4th of July picnics.

7. McCain resumes campaign, the debate is back on. Now his campaign says that since a "framework" for negotiations has been established, thanks to McCain of course, the debate can go on as planned.

Sarah Palin is still a moron.