House GOP Leadership Endorses McCain

A day after winning the Potomac Primary, Sen. John McCain (Ariz.) was handed another victory yesterday when he was unexpectedly endorsed by the entire House Republican leadership.

Republican leaders had said Tuesday they intended to remain neutral, but after an hour-long, closed-door session with the senator, House Minority Leader John A. Boehner (Ohio), House Minority Whip Roy Blunt (Mo.) and House Republican Conference Chairman Adam H. Putnam (Fla.) all fell in line.

"John McCain is an American hero and will make an excellent president of the United States," Boehner said. "McCain has a solid conservative record as one of the most vocal opponents of wasteful spending, a staunch defender of America's national security and a strong believer in the sanctity of human life. He is uniquely suited to lead our country forward as we take on the many opportunities and challenges of the years ahead."

McCain spent much of the session with House Republicans, not only taking their praise but also reassuring them on one big issue: immigration. McCain has been beaten up badly on the issue, participants said he told them. He told them he understands the nation's borders must be sealed and independently certified as under control before the next president considers further steps to give an estimated 12 million undocumented immigrants in the country a pathway to citizenship.

Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R-Tex.), pushed the conversation into friendly territory, asking McCain what he would do about earmarks: home-district projects written into spending bills by both parties. McCain promised to end the practice, although earmarks have been a fixture in Congress for decades.

McCain also was encouraged to go hard after Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.), and he did, denouncing what he called Obama's rhetorical "platitudes," especially on the Iraq war.

"Look at the record," McCain said, "not the platitudes but the principles."

McCain's trip to the House side of the Capitol was significant because he has had a prickly relationship with conservatives in the chamber for years. In 2004, then-Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) was so incensed that McCain had questioned tax cuts in a time of war that he challenged the senator's credentials as a Republican.

As late as last month, Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-N.C.) asked former senator Phil Gramm (R-Tex.), an emissary of McCain's, why he should not be physically ill at the prospect of McCain at the top of the GOP ticket.

But Boehner sought to neutralize much of that discontent yesterday, pointing out all the House Republicans for whom McCain had campaigned, including some who had spoken out against him. Boehner praised McCain as a standard-bearer who would help Republicans further down the ticket in November by bringing independents to the GOP.

"Part of our discussion was, we have to reenergize our base," McCain said. "We have to get everybody unified. I am confident we will rally the party. We have a lot of work to do."

Rick Davis, McCain's campaign manager, sounded hopeful about consolidating support from conservatives. "We have already seen a herd -- a landslide -- of Republican conservatives endorsing John McCain," Davis said at a lunch sponsored by the Christian Science Monitor. Rather than waiting for some "grand gesture" from him, as some commentators have suggested, "the grand gesture is coming from Republican conservatives to John McCain."

Davis also said that McCain plans to challenge his Democratic opponent to several debates, and that the senator, a longtime advocate of campaign finance reform, would accept public funding of the general election campaign -- so long as his rival did the same.

Staff writer David S. Broder contributed to this report.