The Knowledgemonger Kronicles

Senator John McCain has issued a statement today to suspend his campaign so he may return to Washington to help hammer out a bipartisan deal to fix the economy. What a great idea! Wait, why does he all of the sudden care about going back to Washington to cast a vote? Here are some facts courtesy of Nico Pitney in an Op-Ed on huffingtonpost.com (an admittedly liberal source, but it does not change the facts).

2) The idea of uniting the campaigns to find a bipartisan solution to the Wall Street crisis wasn't even McCain's idea. A few minutes ago, Obama spokesman Bill Burton emailed to reporters:

"At 8:30 this morning, Senator Obama called Senator McCain to ask him if he would join in issuing a joint statement outlining their shared principles and conditions for the Treasury proposal and urging Congress and the White House to act in a bipartisan manner to pass such a proposal. At 2:30 this afternoon, Senator McCain returned Senator Obama's call and agreed to join him in issuing such a statement. The two campaigns are currently working together on the details."

3) John McCain has skipped more votes during this session than any member of the Senate except for Tim Johnson, who had major brain surgery. He has cast a single vote in five months, since April 9. All of a sudden, McCain is demanding that the presidential race shut down so he can return to Washington?

4) A reminder: President Bush was able to debate John Kerry while he was president. For all of his sudden urgency, McCain acknowledged just yesterday that he had not even read the administration's three-page bailout proposal.

Seems like more of the same politicking that this campaign is starting to have a hard time disguising.