McCainiac Media Admires Object of Its Affection in Tropical Hideaway

The roving Ms. Wonkette checks in with a dispatch from the orgy of elite media self-congratulation known as the American Society of Magazine Editors conference at a lavishly appointed beachside Puerto Rican resort.

Fresh off the craps table (where he apparently won $200 last night), McCain sat withNewsweekeditor Evan Thomas for a 30 minute tongue bath. I mean interview.

Thomas led with a question about the disastrous unintended effects of campaign finance reform. Oh, we kid: Actually, he asked if McCain was running for president. And then McCain said, "Yes."

Kidding again. He trotted out Mo Udall's chestnut on the issue (Google it if you like, it was too much of a cliche to write down). The dogged Thomas countered with "Do you want to be president?"

McCain: "Of course, I want to be emperor."

More of the funny man love fest after the jump.

Thomas tried to get something feisty out of McCain by asking about Rumsfeld but the senator refused to bite. Likewise on the administration's opposition to his anti-torture amendment.

Then Thomas wasted a fair amount of time on social conservative issues, at one point asking "What do you think about the state of parenting in America today?"

On raising taxes, McCain was almost as passionate as he was about torture, demanding that we stop wasting money on pork ("DNA testing for bears in Montana! Was there a paternity issue?") before asking Americans for more money.

On partisanship, McCain waxed nostalgic for the days when "Tip O'Neill and Ronald Reagan would fight all day and then he'd come down and it'd be two Irishmen telling corny jokes over drinks...We need more of that today." Indeed, these are times that cry out desperately for more drinking.

"How would you run against you?" Thomas asked in the flush of white hot '08 speculation. "Where to start?" McCain replied.

He then took many, many questions from the "great Americans" who make the pretty magazines and whatnot. Our favorite exchange:

Q: "You've enjoyed a warm and cordial relationship with the press..."

JM: "You mean my base."

Now our thumbs are tired from Blackberrying all this in. Fortunately, this conference is a perfect place to suck on them.--WONKETTE