Democratic powerbroker Bill Shaheen will be co-chairman of Hillary Clinton's New Hampshire campaign. Shaheen will also be a co-chairman of Clinton's national campaign.

Shaheen, husband of former governor Jeanne Shaheen, served as chairman of John Kerry's 2004 primary campaign. Numerous Democratic presidential candidates had been courting him. A formal announcement is scheduled today.

"I chose her for a lot of reasons," said Shaheen. "The main one is that she's strong and she's intelligent and she's honest and she's experienced.

"When I supported (U.S. Rep.) Carol Shea-Porter and the odds were against us . . . I said, 'I don't care. I like her, and I'm going to work for her.' And that's the same feeling I have for Hillary Clinton."

New Hampshire voters, Shaheen said, "are going to realize she's the real deal."

Shaheen and Clinton met in Washington, D.C., and later breakfasted at Shaheen's home.

Jeanne Shaheen is holding off on endorsements. She's director of the Institute of Politics at Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government, a position that requires her to stay neutral.

Riding with McCain

While riding his Straight Talk Express between Lebanon and Bow the other day, John McCain chatted with us and a few others about irony in his campaign - specifically, that he should end up as the candidate linked most closely to President Bush on the war, and that conservatives would view him skeptically despite his voting record.

"First of all, a little irony, because I was the greatest critic of the way the war was being conducted. Life isn't fair. But second of all, I can't let my belief in the (troop) surge, in this new strategy, impact any of my political calculations, because that conflict makes my political ambitions pale in comparison to what young Americans have already sacrificed," he said. "So I don't worry about it, and I won't worry about it. I would rather lose a campaign than lose a war."

As for his relationship with the evangelical wing of the Republican Party, McCain said he believes a potential nominee must acknowledge all the elements of the party, which is why he met with Jerry Falwell (whom he once called an "agent of intolerance") and others.

McCain said he owns arguably the "strongest" conservative record of the major Republican candidates.

"I'm proud to be a conservative - a national security conservative, a fiscal conservative and a social conservative," he said, citing 24 years of pro-life votes. "That's been my record. Some people may not agree with that, but I have never changed."

McCain said that he's deliberately missing the upcoming Club for Growth conference.

"It's kind of entertaining. Some people say (I'm) pandering to the religious right, and then they say (I'm) not going to the meetings. It's hard to win," he said.

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