‘It’s Jeb. He’d like to join us.’

Even when he’s south of the border, John McCain can’t shake the Bush connection.

The senator was joined by Bush as he toured Mexico City’s Basilica of the Virgin of Guadalupe on Thursday morning. No, it wasn’t that Bush. It was Jeb, the former governor of Florida and the president’s younger brother.

McCain often has sought to distance himself from the president in recent months, but that didn’t stop Jeb Bush, who was in Mexico City on business, from asking McCain’s campaign whether he could accompany the presumptive Republican nominee on Thursday’s trip. The campaign said yes, so Bush joined McCain, his wife and Sen. Joe Lieberman on a tour of the site, which is revered by Mexican Catholics.

As McCain lingered inside the cathedral, Bush chatted outside with reporters about the senator’s chances in November. “I think he’s going to win,” said Bush, who endorsed McCain in February. “He just needs to be himself.”