McCain to Rush and Sean: "Calm Down"

In an airport hanger in Phoenix just now, I asked Senator McCain whether he thought Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity could harm his chances in November if they keep up their anti-McCain crusade beyond the point that he secures the GOP nomination. "I don't know the answer to that," Mccain said. "I hope at some point we can just calm down a litle bit and see if there are areas we can agree on for the good of the party and for the good of the country. I think they've made their case against me pretty eloquently." McCain smiled a bit when he said that.

McCain was clearly relishing his victories from last night, especially his surprising strong sweep of almost all of California congressional districts and his close but vital win in Missouri. But his California win notwithstanding, McCain announced that he won't be flying to Munich for the Werkunde conference this weekend. Instead, after speaking to CPAC tomorrow -- an event that is bound to be a spectacle -- McCain will keep campaigning. The key upcoming state: next Tuesday's Virginia primary.

Here's my story on McCain's Super Tuesday performance and his continuing struggle to persuade conservatives he's not an apostate.