President Bush is obsessing over the attention being showered these days on his former rival for the Republican nomination, Senator John McCain.

At a recent White House gathering, Bush volunteered comments about McCain in what seemed like a non sequitur. During a discussion of White House legislative priorities, witnesses say the president said with a snicker, “I won’t have John McCain to worry about forever.”

“It’s clear that the president has taken notice that during the two weeks of the Senate debate on campaign-finance reform, McCain got more coverage than he did,” says one of the meeting’s attendees.

File under: blood feuds.

Issue Date: April 19 - 26, 2001