McCain Leaps Into a Thicket  —  Senator John McCain had intended to ride back into Washington on Thursday as a leader who had put aside presidential politics to help broker a solution to the financial crisis.  Instead he found himself in the midst of a remarkable partisan showdown …

Wall Street bailout plan breaks down  —  Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson left a late-night session at the Capitol Thursday without a deal on the bailout plan the White House says is needed to prevent economic disaster.  —  Four of the five parties involved in the deal — House Democrats …

The Democratic ACORN bailout; Update: Video added  —  House Republicans refused to support the Henry Paulson/Chris Dodd compromise bailout plan yesterday afternoon, even after the New York Times reported that Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson got down on one knee to beg Nancy Pelosi to compromise.

McCain's Choice  —  Is there a third way?  —  The McCain campaign is now trying to broker a deal between House Republicans, Treasury Secretary Paulson, and the Democrats.  This will be tough—but it's worth a shot.  —  If it works, fine.  If it fails, McCain will have, I think, three alternative paths:

Putting Country Last  —  I don't know John McCain as well as David Brooks does.  In fact, I don't know him personally at all.  But I covered his 2000 and 2008 primary campaigns, and I spent considerable time interviewing him, including several long interviews I did for a profile in 2006.

MORE THUGGISHNESS: Obama threatening the licenses of TV stations that run NRA ads.  —  Haven't we had about enough of this?  Related item here.  They told me that if George W. Bush were re-elected there would be brazen efforts to suppress free speech on political grounds — and they were right!