AMERICANS who remember the Bush administration's last shock-and-awe exercise five years ago are understandably hesitant about accepting a drastic use of tax money to avert an economic collapse. Economists differ about whether it is needed, but following the advice of the proposal's cynics rather than that of its advocates would amount to Russian roulette.

That is why Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson Jr.'s proposal to purchase $700 billion in toxic assets from financial institutions has gained conditional support from both Republicans and Democrats. The assets eventually would be sold in the private sector, potentially recovering most if not all of the tax expenditure.

Congressional leaders have preliminarily added requirements to Paulson's bare proposal that would include bipartisan oversight, eliminate golden parachutes for the chief executives who caused the crisis, create a mechanism for the government to take an equity stake in some of the firms and help homeowners facing foreclosure of their mortgages.

Leaders from both parties said Thursday morning that they were near agreement on legislation to implement the actions, but it might have been premature. In a dramatic move, Sen. John McCain declared a suspension of his presidential campaign and flew to the rescue, saying he would skip last night's presidential debate if an agreement had not been reached.

Even though conservative House Republicans complained that their objections to the negotiated plan had gone unheard, McCain's presidential theatrics were predictably disruptive. A meeting of Bush, administration officials, McCain, Sen. Barack Obama and congressional leaders of both parties only added heat to the controversy.

By yesterday morning, McCain acknowledged that debating presidential opponent Obama would be “;the best thing that I can do, rather than to inject presidential politics into some delicate negotiations,”; and he flew to Mississippi, the debate venue. Otherwise, Obama could have turned what was planned as a debate into a one-on-one interview. Essentially, McCain ended the stare-down with a blink.

In McCain's absence - he never was part of the negotiations - Senate and House leaders from both parties were expected to approve a bailout package this weekend, regarding Monday morning's Wall Street bell as a deadline. The package reportedly included an option to rescue toxic mortgage-backed assets with government-backed insurance instead of tax dollars, the system supported by House conservatives although unrealistic.

The bailout is only a first step in correcting the flawed system that caused the crisis. Follow-up measures need to be taken by the next Congress to reinstate a post-Depression measure that kept a financial institution from both lending money and investing it. That law was unwisely repealed in 1999.