McCain sitting pretty for 2008 race

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Some top Republicans at odds with Sen. John McCain on core conservative issues say privately that the party's 2008 presidential nomination is "his to lose."

They cite the Arizona senator's head start in fundraising, a primary calendar that is shaping up in his favor and a growing belief that he enjoys the tacit support of President Bush.

In state after state, Mr. McCain has been passing out money to Republican candidates for other offices, to state party organizations and even to Republican county chairmen. Extending such largess to the county level is unheard of in pre-nomination campaign maneuvering, party officials say.

Now, one of the most widely respected conservatives in the country says he is ready to help pull the McCain campaign bandwagon whenever the senator makes his 2008 Republican presidential run official.

"He is the only person I know who is running and capable of getting elected who is tough enough to do what needs to be done," says former Texas Sen. Phil Gramm, who has quietly been helping to write Mr. McCain's speeches. "He will veto spending bills and earmarks and stand up to the Social Security and Medicare challenges that will fall in the next president's lap with the baby boomer retirement."

For some luminaries on the right, Mr. Gramm and Mr. McCain make an odd couple at best.

"You've got to be kidding," former Majority Leader Tom DeLay said after being told of Mr. Gramm's support for Mr. McCain. "Though in a sense, I'm not surprised. They've been friends."

Mr. McCain was national chairman of Mr. Gramm's 1996 presidential campaign.

The two have had their disagreements.

Throughout his seven years in the House and 17 years in the Senate, Mr. Gramm was considered a strong defender of the First and Second amendments. He opposed what he saw as infringements on free speech in the 2002 McCain-Feingold campaign-finance law, as well as Mr. McCain's one-time alliance with the gun-control lobby.