Russ Feingold, John McCain's friend and partner on campaign finance reform, offers a description of his colleague to the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel's Craig Gilbert that veers sharply from the approved message.



Like McCain, Feingold is known for speaking his mind, sometimes at the expense of his own party. But unlike McCain in the GOP or, say, Lieberman among Dems, Feingold's liberal credentials are unimpeachable.



Which makes his praise all the more tough to dismiss.



If some of the below is not soon incorporated into a McCain ad, mail piece, stump speech or surrogate talking point, I'll go vegan for the rest of the cycle:

Washington — If Republican John McCain needs someone to vouch for his independence, he could easily do worse than Senate colleague Russ Feingold of Wisconsin, a liberal Democrat from a key battleground state.



"I think the guy calls 'em as he sees 'em, and as president would call 'em as he sees 'em, and would make people mad all over the place because it wouldn't fit anybody's playbook," said Feingold, who teamed up with McCain to rewrite federal campaign laws.



"He would be very original," Feingold said.



Those are not exactly Democratic talking points.



In fact, while Feingold supports his fellow Democrat Barack Obama for president, he continues to express (when asked) his affection and admiration for McCain, even in ways that deviate from his party's core strategy against the Arizona Republican, which is to paint him as a clone of President Bush, and a "maverick no more."



Feingold calls McCain "very original" and a "maverick by nature." McCain's own TV ads call him the "original maverick."



"I'd rather have Obama for many, many reasons," Feingold said, citing his deep differences with McCain over foreign policy, health care and civil liberties, and his belief that Obama could be an inspirational president.



He also is critical of McCain's campaign, suggesting that its efforts to "tarnish" Obama may end up tarnishing McCain as well.



"But the notion that somehow [McCain] is going to get in there and be some kind of ideological Newt Gingrich right-winger is a joke. There's no way that he would do that," Feingold said.

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