An evening to remember

This evening, I had the privilege, along with about 40 others, of attending a dinner with John McCain. As I have said before, I agree with Senator McCain little more than half the time these days, but I have tremendous admiration for him, and consider him a great American.
Tonight’s affair only reinforced my admiration. Senator McCain had to leave the event shortly before dinner began in order to vote. After finishing his business on the Hill, he returned to Georgetown and answered questions from all-comers for perhaps an hour, until the host relieved him of this duty (which he handled with aplomb and seemed to enjoy).
Although we had assumed that the session would be off the record, McCain said he was happy to answer on the record, particularly since nothing in Washington is ever really off the record anyway. Despite being on the record, the Senator’s answers consisted of the “straight talk” for which he is known.
I asked Senator McCain about the impact of the McCain-Feingold campaign finance reform act on bloggers. He replied that he wanted no government regulation of the internet. I followed-up, politely I hope, by noting that a court decision in litigation undertaken in his name was serving as the basis for proposals to regulate the bloggers. McCain responded that he was not aware that the litigation had raised the prospect of internet regulation, and that he would look into the matter. He then reaffirmed that there should be absolutely no regulation of the internet in the name of McCain-Feingold or campaign finance reform.
On the issue of judges, McCain stated that the Democratic members of the gang of 14 do not want to filibuster a Supreme Court nominee, and will do so only if President Bush goes way out on a limb with a truly extremist nominee.
UPDATE: Judging from John’s post above, it looks like there were more folks at our “intimate” dinner party with McCain than there were at the Cindy Sheehan protest march.