it’s just been announced that McCain will be appearing in at least one Bush campaign ad:

President Bush’s re-election campaign has a television ad in the works featuring former Republican rival John McCain and advisers are weighing whether to air it when Democrat John Kerry announces his vice presidential pick.

McCain, the Arizona senator who rejected Kerry’s overtures to be No. 2 on the Democratic ticket, campaigned with Bush in Fort Lewis, Wash., last month. Bush’s admakers filmed the appearance and the footage is being included in an ad, according to GOP sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the plans remain incomplete.

Yeah, McCain is a Republican and maybe you can argue he should be doing all he can for his party. But after what Bush did to him in 2000, an act of pure character assassination founded on a big lie (that McCain was opposed to funding breast cancer research), and after more than 20 years of friendship with John Kerry, I wish he had politely refused to appear in the Bush ads.

McCain was tossed a bone for being a good mascot, and will be delivering the keynote speech at the Republican convention. I want to think that McCain will be the maverick I know and respect, and spice up his speech with some honest thoughts about how his party can make the world a better place (maybe by dissolving itself?). But after seeing his toadying of the past few weeks, I’m not at all optimistic.