Christopher Dodd

From AP’s Jennifer Loven, word that there’s a tentative Capitol Hill deal on the $700 billion Wall Street bailout. The terms are entirely sketchy, but it sounds like no agreement has been reached on helping distressed mortgage holders, only their bankers’ bankers:
The tentative accord would give the Bush administration just a fraction of the $700 [...]

Purely as a question of self-interest, John McCain’s exit-the-stage gambit makes sense. With cries of impending doom filling the air, he had nothing to gain by sticking around to discuss a subject he ill understands, all the while being pelted with quotations of the Hoover-like things he’s already said and done during his long tenure as a cheerleader of financial deregulation. On Monday of last week, McCain proclaimed the economy “fundamentally strong” even as Wall Street’s latest and gaudiest blowup was unfolding. Since then he’s faced erosion in the polls day after day.

Every hour of every day brings reams of fresh news reports and commentaries on the Wall Street crisis and the competing bailout proposals wending their way through Congress, but that doesn’t mean you can learn anything from most of them. Here’s a guide to the best, most comprehensible commentaries on the present mess.