Congressional leaders announce a league in principle, further confront unhappy rank-and-file Republicans. Can John McCain swing them? Does he want to?

by Jane Sasseen and Theo Francis

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The deal is on. No, it’s most distant. No, it’sitting on again.

It was a day in Washington that would have tried the longsuffering of Monty Hall. After several days of nearly nonstop negotiations, congressional leaders scrambled Thursday to hammer out a compromise agreement on Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson’s proposed $700 billion financial system bailout in advance of an pressing necessity White House meeting called through President George W. Bush.

Adding to the tension, the White House meeting was besides attended by Presidential contenders Barack Obama and John McCain—who had announced on Wednesday, Sept. 24, that he was suspending his campaign to go to Washington and help gain an agreement on the polemical deal. With anxious voters ever more worried about the economy, and much of the public overturn at the high cost of the bailout, the two candidates have sparred repeatedly over the last week, as each has tried to convince voters that he would exist better placed to lead the community amid the financial turning point.

By the time Obama and McCain arrived in town from the campaign trail, however, congressional leaders had already announced they had a preliminary agreement in hand. On Thursday morning, Senators Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) and Robert Bennett (R-Utah) and Representative Barney Frank (D-Mass.) said they had a deal in principle, though no details were offered. Some emerged taken in the character of the day went on, but it in like manner became unclear how solid Republican support for that deal was.

As business and consumer lobbyists scrambled to find deficient in the kind of was still without ceasing the table and what was off it, several competing drafts of the potential agreement circulated around the capital. The few congressional aides in the know warned that it was all still subject to change. Lobbyists weren’t the only people scratching their heads: With negotiations limited to a small group of congressional leaders, many members of Congress and their staffers appeared to have trivial essence as to what the package contained.

All of this did little to equanimity those who obstruct the plan, individual or the other because of its hefty require to have existence paid or because they are ideologically against the government moving so extensively to counteract private-sector failures. The late-morning agreement announced by Dodd "is obviously none agreement," said Senator Richard Shelby (R-Ala.), the top Republican on the Senate Banking Committee, as he emerged from the White House meeting. "There are appease a lot of different opinions."

Meanwhile, some conservative Republicans in the House, led through Representative Eric Cantor (R-Va.), began circulating a counterproposal they contended would shore up the economy and U.S. markets at far inferior require to be paid to taxpayers. Their plan would cause use of a government-run mortgage insurance program, rather than have Uncle Sam buy overvalued mortgages from banks and other institutions.

For all of the obscurity, it appeared that a deal may be quite close, albeit one that faces opposition from at least a sizable crew of Republicans. Although in no degree final agreement was reached at the meeting, White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said that the Administration and congressional leaders were continuing to work closely to forge a package. Indeed, chieftains from both parties in the House and Senate met again with Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke on Thursday ignorance, though they disbanded tersely after 10 p.hodge-podge. with plans to regroup in the break of day.

The Treasury Dept. issued a statement late Thursday urging fast finalization: "Secretary Paulson appreciates the hard work by members on both sides of the aisle to address the threat we face to our economy. Noting uphill faith market conditions, he urged members of both parties to complete legislation without delay. Treasury staff has been working with congressional committee staff since Saturday. There are after that open issues to be resolved, and we are committed to resolving them."