We knew we hadn't seen the last news report on McCain campaign manager Rick Davis' ongoing ties to the lobby firm he founded, Davis Manafort.

Newsweek has taken a look at annual filings made by the company to the Virginia state government. Those filings, the most recent of which is from April of this year, list Davis as one of two officers and directors of the firm.

As the magazine notes, that information suggests that in recent days, the campaign "appear[s] to have overstated the extent to which Davis had severed his relationship with his lobbying firm." A statement posted on the McCain campaign website by a spokesman Wednesday morning -- in response to reports that Davis's firm was being paid by the home-loan giant Freddie Mac as recently as this month -- asserted that Davis "separated from his consulting firm, Davis Manafort, in 2006." And a campaign spokeswoman wrote in an email to Newsweek Tuesday that Davis "left" the firm that year.

Of course, the fact that someone is listed as an officer on a corporate filing doesn't prove that he was involved in the day-to-day running of the company during the period in question. But Newsweek's find will certainly keep the heat on Davis, who yesterday skipped lunch with reporters, at a time when McCain would prefer the focus to be on his own efforts, belated and vainglorious as they may be, to help avoid a financial meltdown.

A source just sent us a copy of the working draft of the bailout plan circulating, as of about two hours ago, in the House.*

Based on our quick look, it includes a strong provision for congressional oversight, limits executive pay, and would allow bankruptcy judges to adjust mortgages in order to help homeowners, among other items. In other words, the major Democratic priorities.

Things have been changing so quickly on the Hill -- even before McCain's dramatic announcement -- that there's no telling what's occurred in the intervening period.

The source, who's a well-connected Democratic lobbyist, added in an email to TPMmuckraker that "the deal on the "bail out" is 98 percent done. Treasury has capitulated on almost every point. A draft is circulating on the Hill now. No one needs McCain to help do the remaining 2 percent."

Late Update: As we should have mentioned earlier, the draft plan also contains a provision designed to "maximiz[e] taxpayer benefits" by requiring that the Treasury "obtain warrants" (i.e. stock futures) if it makes a direct purchase of a company. That's intended to ensure that taxpayers get a share of any future profits, and it's another element Democrats have been insisting on.

*Ed. Note: A well-placed Hill source subsequently tells us that this version has actually been circulating for a couple of days, and that while it's still mostly operative, it is not the latest iteration of the alternative to the Bush plan.

The Republican Study Committee (RSC), a faction of small-government House conservatives led by Rep. Jeb Hensarling of Texas, has released an alternative plan for dealing with the Wall Street crisis, in opposition to the $700 billion bailout being proposed by the Treasury Department.

The stripped-down plan advocates a two-year suspension of the capital gains tax and calls for pull privatization of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which were taken over by the federal government earlier this month.

The RSC's opposition to the bailout -- coupled with concern among progressive Democrats that the measure doesn't do enough to help homeowners -- could complicate efforts by House leaders to quickly pass legislation.

According to The Hill, the RSC argues that the bailout plan "fundamentally alters the nation's free-market system in that it broadly socializes firms' money-losing mortgage assets and places the U.S. on a slippery slope whereby profits will also be nationalized."

From FoxNews.com:

The White House dispatched Vice President Dick Cheney to Capitol Hill Tuesday morning to help shore up support for the financial bailout of Wall Street.

. . . House conservatives are seething about the "big government" approach that they say President Bush is taking in the financial crisis. They don't like how much power it cedes to the Treasury or the price tag.

"[Cheney] is going to walk into a firing squad. I hope he brought his hunting rifle," an aide to one House conservative told FOX News.

According to a senior House staffer, Speaker Nancy Pelosi is likely to insist that any Wall Street bailout bill contain two specific items from the Democrats' wish-list: limits on executive compensation, and a measure to protect homeowners by allowing mortgages to be renegotiated in bankruptcy proceedings.

Things may not go smoothly on those fronts, however. House Republicans have signaled their firm opposition to executive pay limits. And the Blue Dogs, a faction of fiscally conservative Democrats, may be "uncomfortable" with changing bankruptcy laws, said the staffer.

There are a number of Democratic proposals circulating right now aiming to attach strings to the Treasury Department's $700 billion Wall Street package.

In the Senate, the draft legislation being offered by Banking Committee chair Chris Dodd appears, which would give the federal government an equity stake when it helps banks with debt, (and which Paul Krugman describes as "a big step in the right direction) appears to be the most prominent.

But in the House, things are a bit more chaotic. Rep. Barney Frank, who chairs the Financial Services committee, has circulated his own proposal, which is slightly closer to the Treasury Department's own, though, like Dodd's, it aims to limit executive pay.

Rep. Brad Sherman this afternoon released to TPMmuckraker an outline of his own plan, which goes further than either Dodd's or Frank's.

And an unlikely coalition of conservative deficit hawks and liberal populists may be taking shape to oppose any bailout at all.

Pelosi's office did not immediately respond to a request for further information.

Rep. Scott Garrett (R-NJ), a member of the House Financial Services and Budget Committees, is strongly opposed to the administration's plans to bail out Wall Street an aide confirmed to TPMmuckraker.

"There aren't any amendments that I have heard of that would make him turn around and support it," said Erica Elliott, Garrett's press secretary.

As Congress struggles to understand the implications of the Treasury Department's $700 billion bail-out solution proposed last Friday, there is considerable uncertainly on Capitol Hill about the alternative measures that will be proposed and where individual lawmakers stand.

"It really is a big ongoing conversation with a lot of different members," Elliott added. "Trying to get everyone together who says 'We don't like the $700 billion bailout, what do we like in place of that.'"

This afternoon, the House Republican Study Committee, of which Garrett is a member, held an emergency meeting to discuss alternative plans to the administration's proposal.

Earlier this morning, Garrett also stepped into the fray currently overtaking Capitol Hill, circulating an email with three attached articles by economists with bailout alternatives.

Last week, Garrett and Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D-OH) came across the aisle to call for the formation of a bi-partisan Select Committee on Bailouts to investigate the actions taken by the Federal Reserve and Treasury Department with regard to bailouts.