Why Johnny can't run

I don't claim to be a financial wizard. In truth, I really don't understand our country's financial meltdown. Except that I understand it is serious. Very serious.

So I was surprised when House Repugnicants shot down their Pres-idiot's bailout plan Monday. Despite his impassioned plea to pass the plan.

Was it a good plan? Don't know. Was it a bad plan? Don't know.

Nevertheless, at least two people were seriously injured in the fallout from the vote.

Unless he had any doubts before, the White House W-imbecile is officially and irrevocably irrelevant. Beyond a lame duck. Wheelchair bound.

And the Repugnicants' new standard bearer, John McSame, is limping badly.

McSame had hitched his wagon to the bailout star. It was, he was proud to state, a plan he'd brokered personally. He was gonna save the union. He put his campaign on hold (yeah, right) to wade in and save the country.

Right, John.

One problem. His own party abandoned him.

And now where's John at?

Republican John McCain has maneuvered himself into a political dead end and has five weeks to find his way out.

Last Wednesday, McCain suspended his presidential campaign to insert himself into a $700 billion effort to rescue America's crumbling financial structure. In so doing, he tied himself far more tightly to the bill than did his Democratic opponent, Barack Obama.

Then, as the bailout plan appeared ready for passage Monday in the House, McCain bragged that he was an action-oriented Teddy Roosevelt Republican who did not sit on the sidelines at a moment of crisis.

The implication: that he played a critical role in building bipartisan support for the unprecedented bailout.

"I went to Washington last week to make sure that the taxpayers of Ohio and across this great country were not left footing the bill for mistakes made on Wall Street and in Washington," McCain said at a campaign rally in the swing state of Ohio.

Problem was, John, your fellow Repugnicants weren't buying. Set yourself up as a maverick, even against your own party, and now you're hard-pressed to find a constituency, huh? Now who do you blame? Who else?

Initially, McCain went silent, choosing instead to send his chief economic adviser out with a statement that blamed Obama, claiming that the first-term Illinois senator had put his political ambitions ahead of the good of the country.

"This bill failed because Barack Obama and the Democrats put politics ahead of country," McCain senior policy adviser Doug Holtz-Eakin said.

It wasn't long, however, before McCain told reporters in Iowa: "Now is not the time to fix the blame, it's time to fix the problem."

Even YOU couldn't buy that, could you, Johnny?

So where does that leave McSame?

If the congressional impasse leads to a credit crisis, "it's not going to be good for McCain," veteran Republican consultant John Feehery said.

Toooo bad.

You went into the campaign admitting you didn't know much about the economy. Sure proved that, didn't you?

All you know is how to play dirty.

Let's see you sling enough mud to get out of this one, Johnny.

And so it goes.