Aides, lawmakers weigh in on candidates' bailout roles

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Congressional leaders this weekend reached an agreement on the government's $700 billion bailout proposal, but questions remain over what role the presidential candidates played in negotiations.

Rep. John Boehner praised Sen. John McCain and thanked him for his support Sunday night.

"He has been making calls to members in support of this bill. And I think I've made clear to many of you that if not for John McCain supporting me at the White House when I said wait, time out, they would have run over me like a freight train. And I'm grateful for his support," said Boehner, R-Ohio.

Republican Sen. Judd Gregg had similar praise for both McCain and Sen. Barack Obama.

"I actually think Sen. McCain and Sen. Obama were one of the catalysts of this effort," he told CNN's Wolf Blitzer on Sunday. "Having them here in Washington highlighted dramatically for the American people just how dangerous this situation was to folks on Main Street."

But Sen. Chris Dodd said Sunday that the candidates' presence "delayed and slowed down this process."

He added, "Respectfully, John McCain did not help. In my view, that was a political stunt."

Sen. Gregg defended McCain against criticism that his return to help with the bill was a political stunt, emphasizing his day-to-day involvement in the negotiations.

"I think he's been extremely constructive dealing with the House Republicans and getting them comfortable with the importance of doing something and doing it the right way," Gregg said.

McCain last week suspended his campaign to focus on the financial crisis. He said Sunday he was not looking for credit and instead said Congress and Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson are the ones who deserve all the credit for the bailout negotiations.

"I'm never going to not get engaged when the taxpayers and middle class of America are in danger of losing everything, literally, that they've worked all their lives for," McCain told ABC's George Stephanopoulos. Adding, "I won't claim a bit of credit."

But throughout the weekend, McCain's aides were quick to say the Arizona senator played a big role in brining around reluctant Republicans.

"What Sen. McCain was able to do was to get all sides to the table which resulted in a vastly better bill," strategist Steve Schmidt told a group of reporters Sunday.

Last week, however, CNN's Dana Bash said a senior adviser to McCain agreed that McCain seemed to be hindering the negotiating process rather than helping it.

"We understand that what we need to do is get McCain out of here, get him out of town, because the minute that McCain is somebody seen as brokering this, that's going to kill it," Bash quoted him as saying.

She said sources inside McCain's campaign understood he was "political dynamite."

Karen Hughes, a former counselor to President Bush, said Monday that McCain did "exactly the right thing and proved himself to be a man of action."

"Throughout his time in the Senate, John McCain has brought Democrats and Republicans together to try to make progress," Hughes said Monday on CNN's "American Morning." "By contrast, I think Barack Obama was strangely absent. He said as little as possible, he did as little as possible. I think he was more worried about the impact on his campaign than he was about solving this national crisis."

Mark Penn, former chief strategist for Hillary Clinton's campaign, disagreed. He said Obama showed leadership while McCain seemed "desperate."

Asked if McCain deserves the credit, Obama said no.

"I was on the phone every day with Secretary Paulson and the congressional leaders, making sure that the principles that have ultimately been adopted were incorporated into the bill," Obama told CBS's Bob Schieffer, explaining, "I think, [that] is an indication of the degree to which, when it comes to protecting taxpayers, I was pushing very hard and involved in shaping those provisions."

CNN's Emily Sherman contributed to this report.

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