Let's play 'Jeopardy'

The answer: John McCain, Hillary Clinton, Woodstock, Fox News and a "pharmaceutical event." The question: What five things would you never expect to see linked in a campaign article?

This is just plain fun. McCain, a Navy hero who spent the Woodstock peace-and-love years as a POW in Vietnam, has launched a new ad in New Hampshire, called "Tied Up," that scores Clinton for backing what he sees as a pork-barrel plan to spend $1 million in federal money for a museum at the site of the famous 1969 music festival.

The ad includes a clip from a Fox News debate in which McCain quips about Woodstock, "I wasn't there. I'm sure it was a cultural and pharmaceutical event. I was tied up at the time." Then it cuts to a shot of Giuliani laughing uproariously.

So who's complaining about the ad? Not Clinton. Not Giuliani. Not even Max Yasgur, on whose farm Woodstock took place (of course, he's dead, and not likely to kick much anyway). The complainant? Fox News, which ordered the campaign to remove its footage.

The irony here is that McCain is using Fox video to flog Clinton, a favorite Fox target, rather than going after the people he has to beat first, such as Giuliani, Mitt Romney, Fred Thompson and the other Republican contenders.

Yes, McCain's trying to paint himself to the Republican base as the true conservative dedicated to cutting wasteful government spending. But then, none of the Republicans he has to beat are in Congress, so it's hard to use the pork-barrel spending cudgel against them.

-- Scott Martelle