In WH Meeting, Obama Muddied Waters

Media reports are emerging from sources inside the White House meeting between the Administration and Congressional leaders of both parties. Contrary to the narrative Democrats are pushing, that Sen. John McCain's presence at the negotiations slowed the process down, reports are that it was Sen. Barack Obama and the Democratic leadership that interjected partisan politics into the negotiations over a financial bailout of Wall Street. Obama, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV), and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) conspired with allies inside the Treasury Department to ambush minority Republicans at the meeting, causing the talks to devolve into a partisan shouting match.

According to a source in the Obama campaign, Sen. Obama was provided with advance notice of an alternative financial rescue package being crafted by House Republicans through a campaign fundraiser and current employee of Goldman Sachs, Treasure Secretary Hank Paulson's former employer. Obama was also made privy to Secretary Paulson's concerns about the Republican plan. Republicans no doubt intended to present the plan at the White House meeting, which was billed as a negotiation. But Democrats opened their presentation by turning the floor over to Sen. Obama, who proceeded to attack the Republicans at the table using Paulson's notes on the Republican plan, foreclosing on any possibility of constructive negotiations being conducted.

Sen. McCain, on the other hand, did not take a high profile role at the White House meeting. He did not take a position on either the Administration's proposal, or the House Republicans' alternative. Rather, he listened to all sides, and spent the remainder of the evening in shuttle diplomacy between House and Senate Republicans, searching for a way to find common ground in their positions.

Democrats have been busy criticizing Sen. McCain's role in the negotiations today, with Sen. Harry Reid saying that there was an agreement, "until you know who came to town." But that statement is patently false. There was no agreement yesterday that included House Republicans, as the Obama campaign and Sen. Reid claim. The Republican present at the meetings prior to Sen. McCain's arrival, Rep. Spencer Bachus (R-AL) said at the time that he was not authorized to agree to anything on behalf of the House GOP. And since Speaker Pelosi has stated that she will not bring a bailout bill to the floor without protecting her flank with Republican support, no deal was possible.

Democrats and the Obama campaign are trying to spin the failure to reach an agreement last night on Sen. McCain, and at the same time trying to accuse McCain of bringing presidential politics to the negotiating table. But that spin does not match the reality of what happened in the White House Cabinet Room last night. There is no more nakedly political act than taking action to cause a breakdown of negotiations, as Sen. Obama did in concert with Democratic leaders and Secretary Paulson, and then blaming the other side for the consequences.

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