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WASHINGTON: Top Democrats angrily accused Republican White House contender John McCain late Thursday of sabotaging an astronomically expensive deal to bail out Wall Street and shore up the US economy.
The US$700-billion package stalled at talks convened by President George W. Bush with top lawmakers and both the men vying to succeed him - McCain and Democrat Barack Obama.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Federal Reserve chief Ben Bernanke were joining a new round of late-night discussions Thursday in a bid to get the deal back on track.
"John McCain did nothing to help, he only hurt the process," the senior Democrat said at a joint news conference with Senate banking committee chairman Christopher Dodd.
Barney Frank, the Democratic chair of the House of Representatives financial services committee, said: "I think this was a campaign ploy for Senator McCain.
"I think they then had the problem that there might not have been enough of a deadlock for him to resolve," he said, after Dodd had earlier announced an in-principle agreement with some senior Republicans on the bailout package.
The meeting convened by Bush was a "photo op and political theatre that had nothing to do with us getting to work," Dodd said.
But backed by Richard Shelby, the top Republican on Dodd's Senate committee, McCain said "there never was a deal" given the hostility of many congressional Republicans to the government's planned intrusion into private enterprise.
"I'm very hopeful that we're making progress, and I know we're making progress," the Arizona senator said in an ABC News interview, as both he and Obama announced they were staying in Washington Thursday night.
McCain had said he was putting his campaign on hold and rushing back to Washington to take part in the crisis talks. He also called for Friday's first presidential debate at the University of Mississippi to be postponed.
Obama again rejected that call, arguing it was more important than ever for the two contenders in the November 4 election to lay out their case to the American people.
"One of us is going to be in charge of this mess in four months, and the American people I think have a right and obligation to find out where we want to take the country and what we believe," the Illinois senator said.
"Senator McCain has no reason to be fearful about this debate. And so, my hope is that the debate goes forward."
McCain told ABC he was "very hopeful" that a deal in Washington could be struck in time for the debate in Oxford, Mississippi to proceed. Obama, however, said there was no reason why they could not juggle both balls.
Republic Senator Eric Canton however applauded McCain for "coming back, trying to effect the change needed so we can get this bill through," and pointed to his "lifelong record" of "reaching across the aisle trying to solve the problems that tend to divide this Congress."
In the face of the financial tumult, polls had showed Obama opening up a wide lead over McCain but new surveys Thursday by Gallup and Zogby had the rivals level-pegging again.
The rescue deal was proposed by Paulson after a raft of government bailouts and failures on Wall Street. In a televised address to the nation Wednesday, Bush warned financial disaster was at hand without quick action from Congress.
Earlier, Dodd had emerged from talks on Capitol Hill with some top Republicans and Democrats to announce "a fundamental agreement on a set of principles" to rescue Wall Street.
"It was a very productive meeting," agreed Republican Senator Bob Bennett, a senior member of Dodd's committee, prematurely anticipating a rapid agreement by both parties in Congress.
Democratic additions to the bailout include leniency for struggling mortgage holders over their repayment terms, and would give taxpayers "equity" in a bailed out company, entitling them to a share of any profits generated.
Democrats also were calling for limits on pay deals for executives whose companies get rescued under the government deal. And they said that any deal must include strict oversight by federal regulators.
But many Republicans, even prior to McCain's intercession, were openly unhappy with the Bush administration for the unprecedented power Paulson would wield over the titanic financial services industry.
In another potential hitch to securing agreement with reluctant Republicans, Reid and other Democrats unveiled a US$56.2-billion stimulus package aimed at helping struggling families.
"We must not forget Main Street as we work to address the crisis on Wall Street," Reid said in a statement, echoing demands from Obama.
- AFP/yb
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