I had almost forgotten that Charlie Bass used to be my Congressman until the, ah, unfortunate events of November 2006. Republicans in New Hampshire’s Second Congressional District never really warmed up to Charlie – I remember in my neck of the woods there was frequent talk of some survey or other showing he had a more liberal voting record than socialist Bernie Sanders across the river in Vermont, which may or may not be as apocryphal as the Rosie O’Donnell terrorism line in Sleepless In Seattle, but to red-meat conservatives it certainly felt that way. Still, my assistant volunteered for Charlie and I let her put up the all-time biggest “VOTE BASS!” sign on my land, even though it blocked out all sunlight for five hours a day in two neighboring towns.

The former Congressman has now emerged from whatever he’s doing these days – “rebuilding the New Hampshire Republican Party”, last I heard, which is a bit like letting the dry rot rebuild your barn – to endorse Senator McCain on the following grounds:

John McCain is quite different. He’s been very specific now for years about the things that he thinks are important: climate change, campaign finance reform.

The Republican platform as seen by Charlie Bass: “climate change” and “campaign finance reform”. With friends like that, who needs Democrats?