Beyond the Dome

John McCain faced a real dilemma during this week's debate on the climate change bill. It's one of the biggest issues where he breaks with the Republican party line, so showing up to vote for it would have highlighted that disagreement. And if he had voted against it, Democrats would have called him a flip-flopper.

So here's how he solved the problem: He stayed away, and put out a statement that straddled the fence.

Last night, McCain said he would have voted to end debate on the climate change bill this morning, if only his schedule had allowed him to be on Capitol Hill today. (He's campaigning in Florida.) It was a curious choice of priorities, since McCain called climate change "the most important environmental challenge facing not only our nation, but the entire world."

It's not like McCain's vote would have made a difference, since the bill fell 12 votes short of the 60 votes you need to end debate in the Senate. Four Democrats held out against ending the debate, but most of the "no" votes came from Republicans.

But McCain also said that he would have voted against the final bill if senators didn't add provisions to encourage the use of nuclear power, which he called "an emission free source of electricity" that "simply must be part of the comprehensive solution to addressing climate change."

By saying he would have opposed the bill without nuclear power, McCain gave Barack Obama an opening -- sort of -- to claim that McCain would have opposed the popular bill entirely. "This is a failure of our politics and a failure of leadership - a President who for years denied the problem, and a Republican nominee, John McCain, who claims leadership on the issue but opposes this bipartisan bill," Obama said in a statement after the vote today.

And Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada blasted McCain for not bothering to come to Washington to move the bill forward. "Senator McCain says global warming is one of his top issues, but when he has the chance to do something about it, he doesn't even show up to work," Reid said.

In fairness, though, Obama didn't show up either. He's back home in Chicago, his aides say, taking some personal time and catching his breath.