McCain failed as leader

John McCain is clearly more comfortable talking about the Iraq surge than about the economy, but the current economic meltdown is more urgent than the situation in Baghdad.

Yet the way McCain has responded to the crisis contradicts his claim that he puts country first.

If there were ever a moment when leadership was needed, it was Monday in Congress.

No one is happy about the Bush team’s plan for a $700 billion bailout. But anyone with a brain knows this crisis affects not just Wall Street, but the future of our pensions, 401(k)s and jobs.

Yet, after a theatrical rush to Washington last week with promises to lead, McCain chose politics over country. He offered no new ideas, nor did he stop Republican House members from defeating the bailout.

When the Republican nays caused the biggest market drop in history, McCain blamed Barack Obama for the damage.

The numbers prove him wrong. Democratic House leaders prodded two-thirds of their members to support the unpopular bill, after President Bush argued it was urgent. They voted for something many disliked to prevent a market meltdown.

But two-thirds of Republicans voted to scuttle the legislation. McCain’s leadership skills were nowhere to be seen.

House Republicans then had the gall — as the stock market plunged — to blame supposed Democratic insults. McCain never raised his voice to urge fellow Republicans to think first of country.

I can think of only two reasons for such dishonorable behavior.

One: As he has admitted, Mc-Cain does not have a very good grasp of economics.

This showed up in Friday’s debate. Every time moderator Jim Lehrer pressed McCain on the economic crisis, he slipped into monologues on cutting earmarks. (Never mind that his running mate sent a lobbyist to Washington to collect millions in earmarks.)

Win at all costs?

The other plausible explanation for McCain’s behavior: He wants to win so badly that he’ll choose partisanship over statesmanship. With Bush unable to rally the country or the Republicans, McCain refused to step into the breach and do what the nation needs.

McCain’s colleagues on the Hill claimed they voted no because House Speaker Nancy Pelosi dissed them. If McCain had put country first, he would have echoed Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., who said: “There’s a terrible crisis affecting the American economy. And because someone hurt their (the Republicans’) feelings, they want to punish the country? That’s hardly plausible.”

It’s all too plausible. Country be damned.

McCain has been a champion, for years, of the kind of deregulation that brought us to this crisis. His chief economics advisor until recently was former Sen. Phil Gramm, who opposed regulating derivatives, the complex financial instruments that have played a major role in the credit collapse.

Rather than make hard choices, McCain wants it both ways. By not pushing hard for this unpopular plan — a plan proposed by Bush — he can claim the maverick mantle. At the same time, he blames the ensuing disaster on Democrats.

X Trudy Rubin is a columnist and editorial-board member for the Philadelphia Inquirer. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.