Durbin Rips McCain's Return To Washington

Illinois Democratic Senator Dick Durbin ripped John McCain for his announcement yesterday that he would skip the scheduled presidential debate Friday night and return to Washington to allegedly work on the economic crisis, saying McCain's stunt has "less to do with the drop in the Dow Jones average and more to do with a decline in the Gallup poll."

"Last week, Senator John McCain declared the fundamentals of our economy 'strong.' Today he says the situation is so dire he needs to suspend his campaign and delay a scheduled Presidential debate so he can devote his full attention to the problem," said Durbin, citing McCain's remarkable turnaround on the state of the economy. "It's not economic leadership that Senator McCain would bring to these negotiations; it's presidential politics – which is the last thing we need if we really want to solve the serious problems our nation faces."

Meanwhile, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) said it would not be helpful or necessary for either McCain or Obama to return to Capitol Hill.

"It would not be helpful at this time to have them come back during these negotiations and risk injecting presidential politics into this process or distract important talks about the future of our nation’s economy," said Reid. "If that changes, we will call upon them. We need leadership; not a campaign photo op."

And addressing McCain pulling out of the debate, Reid said “If there were ever a time for both candidates to hold a debate before the American people about this serious challenge, it is now.”

Given that McCain is not even a member of the Senate Banking committee and has been one of those guys in favor of financial deregulation all these years, it's more than a little difficult to imagine what the hell he would be able to help with.

But, as a parent, it's obvious to me that Senator McCain is like a child getting a mysterious stomach ache on the day of a big test he's unprepared for -- and in this case, the big test is Barack Obama on Friday.