Making Use of the McCain Factor
By JODI WILGOREN - NYT
Senator John McCain of Arizona, a Republican, was quick to quell the kerfuffle he created last month by saying he would "entertain" an offer to run for vice president on the Democratic ticket with his good friend Senator John Kerry. But while Mr. McCain says he has ruled out such a move, a day can hardly pass without Mr. Kerry talking about his fellow Vietnam combat veteran.
Mr. Kerry holds up Mr. McCain, who challenged President Bush for their party's presidential nomination in 2000, as an earlier victim of what he views as Mr. Bush's harsh campaign tactics. He frequently mentions Mr. McCain's experience as a prisoner of war. And when Senator Kerry brags about this or that legislative accomplishment, the co-sponsor he is likely to name is Senator McCain.
In an hourlong interview today with Tim Russert on the NBC News program "Meet the Press," Mr. Kerry brought up Mr. McCain twice, in answering questions about, of all things, the Cuba embargo and the miles-per-gallon standards on cars.
"Well, Tim, as you know, I led the effort with John McCain to try to open up Vietnam," Mr. Kerry said, out of nowhere. A bit later, without prompting, he said, "Both John McCain and I said at the time — you can go back and look at the quote — we said we're not fixed in stone as to the number or how we do this."
At a rally on the campus of the University of Pittsburgh on Friday, Mr. Kerry invoked Mr. McCain — well, Mr. Bush's attacks on him in the 2000 campaign — as an example of what he called the "twisted sense of ethics and morality" in the White House. And at a fund-raiser for the Democratic National Committee on Thursday in New York, he cited his work with Mr. McCain on normalizing relations with Vietnam as an example of his ability to reach across party lines.
So who says he won't do it again?
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