THIS IS ONE McCAIN ENDORSEMENT THAT COULD HAVE BEEN WORSE

Yesterday Tran Trong Duyet, the jailer at the Hanoi Hilton who was charged with watching prisoner of war John McCain, told a reporter that if he were an American vote, "I would vote for Mr. John McCain." And, no he didn't say he liked McCain because he was the most cooperative prisoner who told the North Vietnamese whatever they wanted to know with the least amount of fuss and bother. However, he remembers McCain as a political extremist, even back then and he does point out that McCain's marked penchant for fiddling with the truth is hardly a new development. He says McCain was never tortured. If anyone takes him seriously that could hurt McCain since the torture claim is one of his biggest talking points and has always been the one special card he uses to clobber opponents over the head with when he's backed into a corner.

Duyet claims the presumed Republican presidential nominee made up beatings and solitary confinement in an attempt to win votes.

His statements seem to echo the communist leadership's overall line on America: It insists the torture claims are fabricated, but that Vietnam now considers the U.S. a friend and wants to lay the past to rest. Duyet said one of the reasons he likes McCain for president is the candidate's willingness to forgive and look to the future.

Duyet, 75, grew testy during the interview when repeatedly questioned about torture and why so many other former POWs say they too were mistreated. He preferred to talk about McCain as an old buddy.

It's difficult to question McCain's shrill insistence that he was tortured-- and most people, whether they believe him or not, just give him a pass. A great deal of proof has been put forth that he sang like the proverbial canary while in captivity-- and not just the names of baseball players. He's always tried to pass the wounds he has from having ejected after bombing civilian targets in Hanoi and being shot down by a surface-to-air missile in 1967 as torture. It is clear that the broken leg and two broken arms came from his reunion with earth not from his captors. The Vietnamese mob who found him smashed his shoulder and he was bayoneted, probably because they were pissed off about American pilots dropping bombs on civilian homes and hundreds of thousands of women and children.