Sorry, this might be a very short diary. While McCain and his surrogates were trying to preemptively claim some sort of leadership victory by influencing house members on the bill, it appears that McCain was unable to deliver any of his congressional representatives in his homestate of Arizona.
All 4 Republican congressional house representatives in Arizona voted against the bailout bill. In fact, Arizona's ENTIRE delegation (including the 4 house Democrats) voted against the bill.
Unity is a rare occurence when it comes to the votes of House members from Arizona, but on Monday, the fiscally conservative streak that runs throughout the whole of Arizona politics was evident, as all eight members voted down the bill.
Simply put, McCain doesn't even have the credentials with his own party in his home state to get them to vote along with the bill. That's not leadership you can count on...
In a related story, one of those Republican Arizona representatives, John Shadegg, who is in a tough relection fight called upon Treasury Secretary Paulson to resign:
"Today, I am calling on Secretary Paulson to resign. I believe he has failed to do his job and failed to uphold his responsibility to the American people. He did not warn Congress or the nation in advance of the impending crisis," Shadegg said in a statement.
He sounds like he's blustering a bit like McCain, but again, it gets to the point that the Republican party is in disarray.