...the enemies he keeps

Say what you will about John McCain, there's no denying the man has superb taste in enemies: Trent Lott, Tom DeLay, Bob Bennett, and now, Pat Robertson are all on the short list.

His fellow Republicans in Congress have any number of perfectly valid reasons to despise him. They're genuinely frightened of his campaign finance reform proposals. They're affronted when he loudly points out, and tries to cut, their pet pork-barrel spending projects. (You're only supposed to do that to Democrats, dontcha know.) And they still talk about the time he had the gall to try to eliminate the Senators-only reserved parking at Reagan National Airport.

Christian Coalition leader Pat Robertson is new to McCain-bashing, but has much to offer the sport. On CNN Late Edition Sunday night, Robertson huffed that if McCain got the nomination, the Christian right would take its voter guides and go home:

I do believe that if he became the nominee of the Republican Party, John McCain, that the Christian Coalition, which is a voluntary organization, would not put out 75 million voter guides, would not urge its membership to vote for anybody in the general election, and I think there'll be a defection of the Christian conservatives in major waves. I'm talking about a large portion of the Republican base would walk away. And I say that with -- advisedly. You know, we're not under the obligation to put out any literature for anybody. And I just think I can't buy that candidacy. So it's one of those things that I think they'd sit this one out.

[sigh] Promises, promises...