This is Pretty Stunning:

The Deal Dissolves

NYT:

"The day began with an agreement that Washington hoped would end the financial crisis that has gripped the nation. It dissolved into a verbal brawl in the Cabinet Room of the White House, urgent warnings from the president and pleas from a Treasury secretary who knelt before the House speaker and appealed for her support.

"If money isn't loosened up, this sucker could go down," President Bush declared Thursday as he watched the $700 billion bailout package fall apart before his eyes, according to one person in the room.

It was an implosion that spilled out from behind closed doors into public view in a way rarely seen in Washington.

By 10:30 p.m., after another round of talks, Congressional negotiators gave up for the night and said they would try again on Friday. Left uncertain was the fate of the bailout, which the White House says is urgently needed to fix broken financial and credit markets, as well as whether the first presidential debate would go forward as planned Friday night in Mississippi. (...)

"We're in a serious economic crisis," Mr. Bush told reporters as the meeting began shortly before 4 p.m. in the Cabinet Room, adding, "My hope is we can reach an agreement very shortly."

But once the doors closed, the smooth-talking House Republican leader, John A. Boehner of Ohio, surprised many in the room by declaring that his caucus could not support the plan to allow the government to buy distressed mortgage assets from ailing financial companies.

Mr. Boehner pressed an alternative that involved a smaller role for the government, and Mr. McCain, whose support of the deal is critical if fellow Republicans are to sign on, declined to take a stand.

The talks broke up in angry recriminations, according to accounts provided by a participant and others who were briefed on the session, and were followed by dueling press conferences and interviews rife with partisan finger-pointing.

In the Roosevelt Room after the session, the Treasury secretary, Henry M. Paulson Jr. literally bent down on one knee as he pleaded with Nancy Pelosi, the House Speaker, 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.""

(Bolding mine.) McCain is a coward. What will the spin be tomorrow?

Add the United States

to the list of enterprises George Bush has run into the ground. This is his M.O.: bankrupt the company, get bailed out with someone else's money, walk away...

Game, Set and Match...

Score a big one for Krugman:

Here’s what McCain has to say about the wonders of market-based health reform:

Opening up the health insurance market to more vigorous nationwide competition, as we have done over the last decade in banking, would provide more choices of innovative products less burdened by the worst excesses of state-based regulation.

So McCain, who now poses as the scourge of Wall Street, was praising financial deregulation like 10 seconds ago — and promising that if we marketize health care, it will perform as well as the financial industry!

McCain's utter and complete hypocrisy laid bare for all to see. That ought to do it, oughtn't it?

Headline on CNBC

"Stocks Soar on CNBC Report..."

Wow!

"It's Over..."

Don't take my word for it, take Peggy Noonan's...

Kevin Misses the Point:

Kevin Drum asks:

But seriously: are they really that easy to sucker? It's plain where McCain's true sentiments lie: he would have chosen a pro-choice partner if he could possibly have gotten away with it. He only picked Palin out of absolute political necessity. And yet the Christian right reacted as giddily as if he had genuinely seen the light.

So I guess the answer is: yes, they really are that easy to sucker. Pretty amazing.

They haven't been suckered. They've won a battle, they've successfully tested their power over John McCain and found themselves to be quite powerful. They're celebrating.

There is no actual principle involved.

Consider this: What if the Democratic nominee for President was on his second marriage and known to have cheated on his first wife many times? What if the Democratic nominee for VP had a pregnant unmarried teenage daughter in high school?

What would the right say about this duo? About their fitness to lead? About the moral bankruptcy of the left? What are they saying about McCain and Palin?

There are no principles here, only rationalizations and exploitation. The right exploits a faith based belief Christian conservatives have that they are morally good while their opponents are morally bad. Nothing else matters. Deficits, wars, adultery, teenage sex, none of these things matter really. Only a sense of righteousness matters. This is moral relativism in moral absolutist clothing.