Reid Playing Politics with McCain and Bailout

Amanda Carpenter | September 25, 2008 2:31 PM

Former president Bill Clinton said he believed John McCain was acting "in good faith" on the bailout plan, but Harry Reid sure doesn't seem to be.

I wrote a blog below about how he's trying to sneak in a ban on shale oil exploration. He's been hustling to distort McCain's position and work on the bailout as well.

Here's how I see it. First, Reid makes a big deal that McCain has to get Republicans on board for this thing.

So McCain makes the decision to go to Washington and do his job as a US Senator, maybe delay the debates a day or whatever it takes. Then Reid, Barack Obama and all his Democratic surrogates get mad that he's suspending his campaign to do the work. They say McCain can't multitask.

Meanwhile, Reid tells the press in no uncertain terms McCain is going to support the bailout. Not true, he's just coming back to work on it. That's not an endorsement for the thing.

Now, we're hearing from Chris Dodd that a deal is done. Republicans say it's not done yet.

Doesn't it seem like Reid's trying pretty hard to get McCain tangled up on this? Am I the only one seeing this?

Update: Ok, now I know I'm not crazy. Via the Politico, we learn Reid will not call ANY votes on Friday because he doesn't want McCain to have any "excuses" not to participate in the debate.

So, Reid says McCain's campaign was wrong to stop in order to advance the work of the Senate. Now, apparently, all the work of the 100-member US Senate must stop in order to advance 2 persons' presidential campaigns.