>>>Mixed thoughts. McCain is a veteran of the Senate and involved in committee work with a direct bearing on the crisis and I think he needs to be there. I think it's fair to say that if negotiations are on-going Friday evening then he can't commit to the debate because we're paying him to be a Senator.
>>
>>Um, which of McCain's committees is involved in this? According to his Senate website, he's on three: Armed Services; Indian Affairs; and Commerce, Science and Transportation. Clearly not relevant to the first two.
>>
>>The hearing on Wednesday was before the Senate Banking committee. I checked a couple of news stories and see no indication that Commerce, etc., is involved in these discussions.
>
>You never responded to the 2nd part of his statement. I think being involved as a senator is more important than debating right now. For all Obama's talk about it only being 90 minutes, it takes quite a bit more time than that for all that surrounds the event.

Except that a small subset of the Senate and House are doing the negotiating. Once they hammer out a deal, they'll send it to the lawyers to get language written. Then, it'll be distributed to the members (who will likely have staff members read it through and fill them in) and finally, they'll vote.

Unless someone is on the negotiating committee, there's not much for him to do in DC right now, except show up in front of cameras.

Tamar