Dodd Blasts McCain On Economic Leadership

Senator Chris Dodd (D-CT), chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, torched Republican presidential candidate John McCain today in a statement that covered McCain's contrived role in the Wall-Street bailout negotiations and his long history of policies that directly led to the financial crisis.

“John McCain can spend the next 25 days trying to erase his 25 year record of deregulation, but the American people aren’t buying it," said Dodd. "The truth is as Chairman of the Commerce Committee John McCain was the master of deregulation. Now all of a sudden he’s found religion and is trying to paint himself as a populist regulator, but it’s not going to work."

It has to really gall Dodd, who actually was an integral part of the negotiations, to have McCain show up as nothing but a distraction, while taking so much credit and the Connecticut Senator hits him hard on that and how unstable he has appeared in recent weeks.

“This is not the John McCain I have known all these years. He’s been erratic, angry, and shown uncertain leadership in a time of crisis. I didn’t hear from him once when we were negotiating the economic rescue package until he pulled a campaign stunt, parachuted into Washington and accomplished nothing except unnecessarily delaying this agreement for another week."

And he places the blame for the whole mess squarely at McCain's feet.

“If he wants to be angry at someone, he should be angry at himself, his party, and this President for being asleep at the wheel and causing this crisis.”