GOP, Dems jockey for credit on bailout

Now that lawmakers have resumed negotiations on a $700 billion Wall Street bailout, both presidential candidates and their allies are maneuvering to get credit for bringing all parties to the table.

During a meeting on Thursday at the White House, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) said he was supporting the position of House Republicans, according to GOP officials.

However, Democrats did not mention that comment when they were criticizing House Republicans and McCain on Thursday night.

Rep. Ray LaHood (R-Ill.) on Friday that while he did not attend the meeting at the White House, he understood that McCain's presence was a game changer for House Republicans.

"I understand…. he said, 'You have to start listening to House Republicans if you want to start getting stuff done,'" LaHood said.

A McCain spokesman could not be immediately reached for comment.

Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.), the Democratic presidential candidate, said Friday morning that he floated the idea of allowing House Republicans to help shape the deal more to their liking in conversations Thursday with congressional and administration officials.

{mosads}"One of the things that I suggested yesterday was … [to] have Secretary Paulson figure out whether those items should be listed in a menu of options that are available to him for the rescue package,” Obama said during a conference call with reporters.

At the same time, a senior Republican aide said McCain suggested the idea Friday morning with House Minority Leader John Boehner (Ohio) and other Republican leaders.

Both candidates could benefit greatly from entering Friday's first presidential debate while being viewed as salvaging the financial rescue package.
 
McCain has suggested adding two other provisions: allowing the government to sell insurance on the debt and loaning companies money to help them.

In the morning meeting, according to the Republican aide, “[McCain] said, ‘If you get these  three, you might have a deal.’ ”

He told the leaders that they needed to have a negotiator, then said he was comfortable leaving to go to the presidential debate in Mississippi, the aide said.

Later in the morning, Boehner named Minority Whip Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) to be the lead negotiator for the House GOP.

Then, Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), one of the authors of the GOP plan, expressed optimism that the parties could reach some agreement.

“We’re not a stick in the mud, we’re not drawing a line in the sand, but we want something that works,” said Ryan, one of three lawmakers leading a House Republican working group charged by leadership with coming up with a new plan.

House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank (D-Mass.) said he did not believe that Blunt would hold fast to the Republicans’ insurance-based plan.

"There would be no point in negotiating if he was wedded to that," Frank said of Blunt.

But Frank did say the GOP bill could be merged with the other work product. He said Paulson said the House Republicans’ insurance-based plan could be added to the Bush administration’s plan to purchase toxic debt from financial institutions.

Frank called the House Republican plan “useless, but not harmful.”

Asked about adding his plan to the Bush plan, Ryan said, “We’re not going to negotiate in the press.”

But House Republicans are likely to object to the federal government owning equity in the companies and directing money to the Affordable Housing Fund, which Congress created this year. Both of those provisions were key elements of the tentative deal that Democrats and Senate Republicans had announced Thursday morning.

And Democrats continue to want to allow bankruptcy judges to lower mortgage payments for homeowners in bankruptcy. Republicans object strongly to that.