OBAMA DRAMA McCain on Letterman

John McCain likes to court controversy, but an offhand remark made in the course of "unofficially" announcing his candidacy for president could land him in hot water with his own party.

Appearing on The Late Show with David Letterman last night, the Republican senator from Arizona mused about the war in Iraq. "Americans are very frustrated, and they have every right to be," he told Letterman, an outspoken war critic. "We've wasted a lot of our most precious treasure, which is American lives, over there."

"Wasted," eh? Perhaps McCain should have consulted his fellow senator Barack Obama before going on the air. When Obama, who is running for the Democratic nomination, used that word earlier this month to describe the loss of American lives in Iraq, he was fiercely criticized, and the remark went down as the first notable gaffe of his campaign. Leading the outcry was the Republican National Committee, which denounced him in a release headlined "Obama Dismissed The Sacrifice Of America's Military."

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