McCain, Clinton Take Strange Bedfellows

May 12, 2006 — -- The race for the White House in 2008 has already begun, so strange bedfellows and curious political alliances abound.

Case in point: On Saturday morning, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., who during the 2000 campaign called the Rev. Jerry Falwell an "agent of intolerance," will deliver the commencement address at Falwell's Liberty University.

It was a heated moment during a vicious primary battle in 2000. McCain was under attack from many in the GOP establishment and, during the South Carolina primary, elements of the Christian Right.

"I reject individuals such as Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell, who take our party in the wrong direction," McCain said then.

Things seem to have changed. "Last September, I called his office and said, 'I'd like to come by to talk with you,'" Falwell told ABC News.

McCain agreed, and the two men -- sans staffers -- buried the hatchet.

"I think the most important thing in life is to not hold a grudge and to put things behind you," McCain told ABC News this week in an exclusive interview.

Many liberals are dismayed at this unlikely alliance, saying such moves make McCain "look like just another politician" (EJ Dionne, The Washington Post) or as if he's "making a pact with the devils of the religious right" (now-liberal blogger Arianna Huffington).

McCain said that he's always been conservative, and that there's a big difference between speaking at a Christian college and selling your soul.

"I don't believe you can change your core principles," McCain said. "Otherwise you will be justifiably accused of flip-flopping." He insists he hasn't.

It can be a difficult line for a politician to walk. What's reaching out and what's selling out? After all, the worst thing you can say about a man who prides himself on his integrity is that he's compromising that which he holds most dear.

"I do think, like any wise politician moving towards a presidential election, he is trying to build alliances," Falwell told ABC News, "and becoming very successful at it."