Think McCain Will Miss This Vote?

Today, President Bush said he would veto legislation that would limit the CIA to using only the Army Field Manual's interrogation techniques -- no waterboarding, no sensory deprivation.

"The bill would take away one of the most valuable tools on the war on terror, the CIA program to detain and question key terrorist leaders and operatives," deputy White House press secretary Tony Fratto said Friday. (AP)

Here's a veto override vote John McCain would just as soon avoid. Since he's "Senator Straight-Shooter," he doesn't have the option of going back on his previous opposition to waterboarding -- which is so heartfelt because of his POW experience there's not going back, anyway. But an override vote would hurt him, since most Republicans and Independents don't share the Left/Dem/McCain abhorrence over the selected, limited use of these techniques, which impose no physical harm and hardly meet the classic definitions of torture.

And even though it's a garbled message at best, count on the Dems to accuse him of not really being for the war because he's on their side on torture.

My guess: McCain will find a very important campaign event he simply must attend on the day the veto comes up for an override vote.