The question in the Capitol: Who's in charge?

Editor's note: Dana Milbank is a Washington Post reporter who writes "Washington Sketch," an observational feature that focuses on politics and other topics in the capital.

WASHINGTON — Congressional leaders assembled Wednesday on the West Front of the Capitol for the "First Nail Ceremony" to start work on the viewing platform for the Jan. 20 presidential inauguration. While they had the hammer out, they should have nailed a sign to the Capitol door: "Help Wanted."

As the nation plunges into economic crisis, Washington imploded into a leadership vacuum Wednesday.

1:17 p.m.: President Bush schedules an address to the nation to sell his Wall Street bailout package.

2:15 p.m.: Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., a lead negotiator, announces progress in talks on the package.

2:30 p.m.: Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke testify to House in support of the plan.

2:46 p.m.: GOP presidential nominee John McCain pronounces Bush's bailout proposal dead.

Is anybody in charge?

Not the president, evidently. He's so unpopular that Democrats who favor a bailout urged him not to speak about it in public. "Frankly, I don't think that will help us pass the bill," Frank said.

Not the vice president, either. After Dick Cheney appeared before House Republicans on Tuesday night to sell them on the proposal, lawmakers emerged howling about the "enslavement" of taxpayers and the "confiscation" of taxpayer money, and they likened the vice president's sales job to that of a used-car salesman or a shady Realtor.

And certainly not the Treasury secretary, whom lawmakers on both sides berated for a second consecutive day Wednesday. "We may be looking at national bankruptcy and the road to socialism," Rep. Jeb Hensarling, R-Texas, said after hearing from Paulson.

The presidential candidates, as leaders of their parties, could bring recalcitrant lawmakers on board. And they have a powerful incentive: The crisis, if left unchecked, surely will make a mess of the first term of either McCain or Barack Obama by leaving the country in a deep recession, or worse. Instead of proposals, they've offered platitudes.

McCain, meeting with business big shots in New York on Wednesday, took the bold stand that the bailout package should "be in the best interest of the people of this country." Further, he proposed that the proposal should have "transparency, accountability, CEO responsibility." But don't corner him with specifics.

"Senator Harry Reid said you were going to vote for the Paulson plan," a reporter mentioned to McCain.

"I did not say that," the candidate answered.

"Do you have a comment about that?" the reporter inquired.

"I did not say that," McCain repeated.

Obama was no more helpful. "Everyone — Republicans and Democrats, the White House and Congress — must work together to come up with a solution that protects American taxpayers and our economy without rewarding those whose greed helped bring us to this point," he proposed from the safe distance of Dunedin, Fla.

Specifics? Obama didn't offer any. Instead, he proposed a few unobjectionable bromides. "Make sure that your tax dollars are protected," he said. And: "Provide oversight and accountability." And: "I will not allow this plan to become a welfare program for Wall Street executives."

Without guidance from the top, Democratic lawmakers were adrift, lining up at the House Financial Services Committee on Wednesday afternoon to air grievances about the package. "It doesn't look right!" said Rep. Al Green of Texas.

"If you feed pigs, they'll become hogs," testified Rep. Emanuel Cleaver of Missouri.

"Pigs get fed and hogs get slaughtered," amended Rep. Lincoln Davis of Tennessee.

Then, just as Paulson and Bernanke began their testimony pleading for urgency and offering key concessions, McCain torpedoed the whole thing. "It has become clear that no consensus has developed to support the administration's proposal," he said in New York. "I do not believe that the plan on the table will pass as it currently stands, and we are running out of time." He said he was suspending his campaign to return to Washington, and called for Friday's presidential debate to be postponed.

But the Commission on Presidential Debates refused McCain's request, and his proposal to return to Washington was met with immediate ridicule in the capital, privately from Republicans ("Daddy's coming home!" one joked) and publicly from Democrats. "It's the longest 'Hail Mary' in the history of either football or Marys," Frank said, vowing to continue negotiations with the administration. As for the Republican ticket, Frank told The Post's Paul Kane: "I guess if I wanted expertise there, I'd ask Sarah Palin."

Obama vowed to join McCain in Washington, leading Reid, the Senate majority leader, to complain that "it would not be helpful at this time to have them come back during these negotiations. ... We need leadership, not a campaign photo op."

McCain's bombshell ended any remaining hope of a quick deal on Bush's bailout plan. But what else was there to do? Paulson continued to testify. Bush went ahead with his speech. And, in the halls of democracy, anarchy reigned.