BY MARC COOPER

Here's the only tin-foil if not exactly the silver lining in yesterday's literally depressing economic news: Next year's bread lines will be administered by a Democratic, not a Republican, administration. You can bet on it.

For personal reasons (like now I have to work till I'm 113) I'm not going to dwell on the monetary side of yesterday's events.

Let's stick with the political. Get out your tops, mix-masters or even your cement trucks but there are ain't no possible way to spin this episode other than as a crushing and humiliating setback for McCain in specific and the Republicans in general. It's not just that McBumbler was taking credit for the deal before the deal imploded.

That, my friends, is but a mere detail.

The real zinger, the real a-hole statement of all time has been pooped out of McCain's mouth when he said: “This bill failed because Barack Obama and the Democrats put politics ahead of country.”

This shameless statement ought to be sufficient grounds to disqualify McCain as a serious presidential candidate — provided, of course, you didn't mind him naming a nattering nincompoop as a running mate.

Let us quickly review the pesky facts about who is putting what first and who is willing to work with a bi-partisan spirit for the common good.

Basic fact: the Wall Street bail-out is an initiative of the George W. Bush Republican White House and Republican Secretary of the Treasury Henry Paulson. Nevertheless, the Democratic leadership had agreed to a GOP deal last Thursday BEFORE Super McCain swooped into Washington and balled it up.

No problem. Once Johnny Mac left town again another deal was cut over the weekend. And when the vote came to the House today almost 60% of Democrats voted to save the GOP Administration's rear end. But only a 1/3 of Republicans went that direction.

Translation: John McCain and George W. Bush, together, could not bring their own party to vote for the administration's bail-out.

I dunno what else to call that except a Political Rout. Okay, maybe just a Crushing Defeat. And this is after Super McCain took the political gamble of suspending his campaign and in engaging in the insulting Kabuki of single-handedly fixing the deal.

Johnny Mac, as we know, likes to roll the bones now and then but as any gambler will tell you, craps is a “house game” in which the odds are always against you.

So now it's time to chant a phrase that must be quite familiar to McCain's ears: “Seven-out.”

For more of Cooper's takes on the election, including the post “Henry the Whore,” check www.marccoper.com.

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