Sen. John McCain (R., Ariz.) just called National Review Online again, to follow up on his earlier interview, and to issue a challenge to President Obama: “If you really believe in freezing spending, then come out in the State of the Union address and promise to veto the Senate Democrats’ $80 billion spending bill, which they’re drawing up right now, and say you’ll veto the House’s $154 billion spending bill, too.”

If Obama avoids tangling with congressional leaders on spending, then his freeze will be a “disingenuous contradiction,” McCain says. “Tomorrow, he can come out with all the loud fanfare he wants — and he will — but it won’t mean anything if the Senate and House spending bills are still on their way to being signed by the president.”

“You can’t say you want to freeze spending, and then say you’re just fine with the Democrats on the Hill coming back to the failed strategy of the stimulus,” McCain adds. “The president’s freeze will fail unless he voices his strong opposition to the Democrats in Congress who are bent on spending more money.”