“Country First” John McCain, who claimed he would not take part in the debate without seeing a Wall Street bailout bill in place, did take part in the debate. Note that we are being a bit petty here with McCain’s play on words but I think McCain deserves it for trying to make a real issues for the country into a political opprotunity and a photo op. Getting back to the issue, when the $700 billion bailout vote failed, McCain is now accusing Barack Obama for failure to lead.

“Barack Obama failed to lead, phoned it in, attacked John McCain and refused to even say if he supported the final bill, this bill failed because Barack Obama and the Democrats put politics ahead of country,” McCain adviser Douglas Holtz-Eakin said.

Um. Really? According to house.gov 95 Democrats and 133 Republicans voted against the bill while 140 Democrats and 65 Republicans voted for the bill.

Now let’s get some facts on this bill right -

• The bailout bill is bad and the idea of putting tax money to bail out irresponsible corporations is repulsive. How much money? Roughly $2300 per American ( 700 billion / 300 million Amerians )
• However, something needs to be done. And no matter how unpopular this bill was, one version or another of this bill must pass (and I think will pass).
• To be real, this bill is a poison pill. Any Representative who voted yes on the bill and is facing re-election is definitely going to get hammered by his opponent for supporting “irresponsible corporations”. Is it any surprise that Rush Limbaugh et al want Democrats to pass the bill on their own, “since Democrats are in the majority, they should not need any Republican vote” so that they can claim how corrupt Democrats are in November?
• So how many Republicans dared to take the chance - 65. How many Democrats - 140!
• And the “Country First” John McCain, who volunteered to fix the problem, couldn’t do it. So much for that leadership and getting his party behind him.

I guess it is clear who showed leadership and got the Democratic party ready to vote on this bill and who just pretended by suspending his campaign, didn’t get his own party in line and continued his campaign without living up to his words and now wants to blame Obama for the failure. It is John McCain - “Politics First”

[Update] In back-to-back sentences, John McCain contradicted himself over the bailout bill.

In Des Moines, Iowa, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., said the following: “Senator Obama and his allies in Congress infused unnecessary partisanship into the process. Now is not the time to affix the blame. It’s time to fix the problem. “

If it isn’t the time to affix the blame, why are you affixing the blame on Obama Mr. Senator! Today, ‘pathetic’ seems to be a pretty generous word for him.

List of Representatives who voted against the bill (Republicans in bold)

Abercrombie
Aderholt
Akin
Alexander
Altmire
Baca
Bachmann
Barrett (SC)
Barrow
Bartlett (MD)
Barton (TX)
Becerra
Berkley
Biggert
Bilbray
Bilirakis
Bishop (UT)
Blackburn
Blumenauer
Boustany
Boyda (KS)
Braley (IA)
Broun (GA)
Brown-Waite, Ginny
Buchanan
Burgess
Burton (IN)
Butterfield
Buyer
Capito
Carney
Carson
Carter
Castor
Cazayoux
Chabot
Chandler
Childers
Clay
Cleaver
Coble
Conaway
Conyers
Costello
Courtney
Cuellar
Culberson
Cummings
Davis (KY)
Davis, David
Davis, Lincoln
Deal (GA)
DeFazio
Delahunt
Dent
Diaz-Balart, L.
Diaz-Balart, M.
Doggett
Doolittle
Drake
Duncan
Edwards (MD)
English (PA)
Fallin
Feeney
Filner
Flake
Forbes
Fortenberry
Foxx
Franks (AZ)
Frelinghuysen
Gallegly
Garrett (NJ)
Gerlach
Giffords

Gillibrand
Gingrey
Gohmert
Goode
Goodlatte
Graves
Green, Al
Green, Gene
Grijalva
Hall (TX)
Hastings (WA)
Hayes
Heller
Hensarling
Herseth Sandlin
Hill
Hinchey
Hirono
Hodes
Hoekstra
Holden
Hulshof
Hunter
Inslee
Issa
Jackson (IL)
Jackson-Lee (TX)
Jefferson
Johnson (GA)
Johnson (IL)
Johnson, Sam
Jones (NC)
Jordan
Kagen
Kaptur
Keller
Kilpatrick
King (IA)
Kingston
Knollenberg
Kucinich
Kuhl (NY)
Lamborn
Lampson
Latham
LaTourette
Latta
Lee
Lewis (GA)
Linder
Lipinski
LoBiondo
Lucas
Lynch
Mack
Manzullo
Marchant
Matheson
McCarthy (CA)
McCaul (TX)
McCotter
McHenry
McIntyre
McMorris Rodgers
Mica
Michaud
Miller (FL)
Miller (MI)
Mitchell
Moran (KS)
Murphy, Tim
Musgrave
Myrick
Napolitano
Neugebauer
Nunes

Ortiz
Pascrell
Pastor
Paul
Payne
Pearce
Pence
Peterson (MN)
Petri
Pitts
Platts
Poe
Price (GA)
Ramstad
Rehberg
Reichert
Renzi
Rodriguez
Rogers (MI)
Rohrabacher
Ros-Lehtinen
Roskam
Rothman
Roybal-Allard
Royce
Rush
Salazar
Sali
Sánchez, Linda T.
Sanchez, Loretta
Scalise
Schiff
Schmidt
Scott (GA)
Scott (VA)
Sensenbrenner
Serrano
Shadegg
Shea-Porter
Sherman
Shimkus
Shuler
Shuster
Smith (NE)
Smith (NJ)
Solis
Stark
Stearns
Stupak
Sullivan
Sutton
Taylor
Terry
Thompson (CA)
Thompson (MS)
Thornberry
Tiahrt
Tiberi
Tierney
Turner
Udall (CO)
Udall (NM)
Visclosky
Walberg
Walz (MN)
Wamp
Watson
Welch (VT)
Westmoreland
Whitfield (KY)
Wittman (VA)
Woolsey
Wu
Yarmuth
Young (AK)
Young (FL)

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