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 …

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:

Deal May Be Dead: Democrats Blaming McCain  —  Obama, McCain Leave White House Without Deal on $700 Billion Bailout  —  After days of bipartisan negotiations and meetings today at the White House, the deal to bail out staggered investment banks may be dying amid partisan finger-pointing.

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!