But in a "Face the Nation" interview Sunday at Madison Square Garden -- which included his remarks about Kerry -- McCain insisted his hard feelings for Bush died quickly.
"I was past it two months after the election," McCain said. "You cannot look back in anger, because then you're not serving your constituency."
The rapprochement between the two men has been gradual and partly contingent on a peacemaking between the president's political major-domo, Karl Rove, and Weaver, the McCain campaign manager who ended up in a form of Republican political exile representing some Democrats because of the fallout from the primary battle.
Today, Weaver said, the relationships are working, but he nonetheless talks of acting as the "liaison between our world and their world."
McCain allies said the senator was looking forward to his all-but-certain reelection to a fourth term in November. He will be in line to assume the coveted chairmanship of the Senate Armed Services Committee in about two years.
In the meantime, McCain enjoys popularity ratings that are among the highest of any national political figure, with as many as five times as many people surveyed saying they like him as those who say they do not.
It is no surprise that Bush and Kerry continue to draft off McCain, who polls particularly well among the independent voters who may decide the race.
Bush ran a television ad showing an emotional introduction McCain gave him in front of a crowd of soldiers. An early Kerry ad showed the candidate with his hand on McCain's shoulder.
But tonight, it will be Bush who McCain praises in no uncertain terms.
Times researcher Penny Love contributed to this report.
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Portrait of a political independent
Born: Aug. 29, 1936, in the Panama Canal Zone.
Hometown: Phoenix
Personal: Married to Carol Shepp; divorced 1980. Married to Cindy (Hensley) McCain. Seven children and four grandchildren.
Education: Naval Academy, bachelor of science, 1958. National War College, 1973-1974.
Career: U.S. Navy, 1958-1980. Vietnam prisoner of war, 1967-1973. Director of Navy Senate liaison office, 1977-1981. U.S. representative, 1982-1986. U.S. Senate, 1986-present.
* McCain, the son and grandson of Navy admirals, was a Navy pilot who was shot down in the Vietnam War. He was a prisoner of war from 1967 to 1973.
