but it's BS.

McCain himself was modest, saying on ABC’s “This Week” that congressional negotiators deserve “great credit” for the bipartisan deal. “"It wasn’t because of me,” McCain said. “They did it themselves.”

McCain initially took a low-profile role in the bailout debate, saying little at a White House meeting and not even saying which version he favored. His campaign released a list of 17 phone calls he had made on Saturday, from President Bush 11 House members.

Schmidt argued: “Earlier in the week, when Senator McCain came back to Washington, there had been no deal reached. … What Senator McCain was able to do was to help bring all the parties to the table, including the House Republicans.”

Axelrod responded: “When this crisis emerged, Senator McCain's first reaction was to say the economy is fundamentally strong. The next day, he suggested a commission to study this. And by eight days later, he said it was such a crisis that he was going to suspend his campaign. He showed up a day later in Washington.

“It isn't clear what his role was. So it’s a little bit of fiction to now claim credit for it. That's not the important thing, though. The important thing is that the principles that Senator Obama outlined originally are now embraced and taxpayers will be protected.”

YOu know how he tries to pretend he *reaches across the aisle* and we all suspect he's only talking about Joe Liberman, who is a Republican in disguise? This is interesting on who he actually talked to during his short time at the bailout meeting.

The New York Times reports that McCain aides “released a list of people they said Mr. McCain had called from his campaign headquarters on Saturday.” Among them were:

President Bush
Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY)
Sen. Judd Gregg (R-NH)
Sen. Jon Kyl (R-AZ)
House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH)
House Minority Whip Roy Blunt (R-MO)

The list included “nine House Republicans.” No Democrats were listed.

The only time McCain seemed to interact with Democrats was during the bipartisan meeting at the White House on Thursday. During that meeting, McCain “played a shockingly passive role,” sitting silently for 40 minutes, and refusing to discuss his position on the bailout

Oh, and he says he doesn't just *phone it in*. but that's what he did yesterday. He didn't go back to Capitol Hill.He... PHONED IT IN.  What's also really silly is that his spokesman, when asked WHY McCain didn't go back to Capitol Hill on Saturday, said "he can effectively do what he needs to do by phone".

Bwahahahahahahahah