With financial markets continuing to remain calm, members of Congress in both parties apparently concluded that there was still time. Some suggested that the new deadline was sometime Sunday, before Asian financial markets opened.
"Whatever is going to be done has to be done this weekend," said Rep. Lee Terry (R-Neb.), who supports congressional action. "Allowing it to go beyond Sunday into Monday will devastate the markets."
With issues as complex and politically explosive as the Wall Street bailout, it is not unusual for Congress to delay action until the last minute. Many members said more time was needed for constituents to understand the rescue plan and get beyond their anger at using tax dollars to bail out financiers who helped bring on the crisis.
Some Democrats accused McCain of getting behind a plan put forward Thursday by conservative House members. "John McCain did not attack any proposal or endorse any plan," said his spokesman, Brian Rogers.
In an interview with ABC News, McCain said he was hopeful that a compromise could be struck. Pointing to the opposition among House Republicans, he said, "There never was a deal," contradicting what leading congressional negotiators had said earlier in the day.
Rep. Mike Pence (R-Ind.), however, said McCain's involvement in negotiations gave fiscal conservatives hope that any eventual compromise would be more to their liking.
"Knowing John McCain to be the fiscal conservative he is makes many conservatives breathe a lot easier to know he's at the negotiating table," Pence said. "The core of the president's proposal is unacceptable."
McCain met with House conservatives before a White House session Thursday attended by congressional leaders of both parties, McCain and Democratic presidential challenger Barack Obama.
Obama, who earlier in the week had voiced concerns that the presidential hopefuls would be a distraction to the negotiations, expressed support for the ongoing negotiations after the White House summit. "My impression from the meeting today is that the president and the secretary of the Treasury . . . still have some work to do" in getting House Republicans to agree to the proposed bailout.
The seesaw series of events began late Thursday morning, when key congressional negotiators from both parties announced the outlines of a compromise. "We've reached a fundamental agreement on a set of principles," said a triumphant Sen. Christopher J. Dodd (D-Conn.). "We're very confident that we can act expeditiously."
