Always up for a fight, McCain is GOP’s top midterm cheerleader

There’s John McCain in Kansas, stumping with his old colleague, Republican Sen. Pat Roberts, in an unexpectedly tough reelection fight against independent newcomer, Greg Orman.

Next, McCain is spending a couple of days in Louisiana, rallying veterans for establishment-favored Republican Bill Cassidy, who is likely to force a runoff with three-term Democratic Sen. Mary Landrieu.

Then it’s off to Georgia, to throw in for the millionaire businessman, David Perdue, who is slipping in the polls against nonprofit executive Michelle Nunn in Democrats’ best chance for a pickup in November (or January, if that race also goes to a runoff.)

At 78, McCain, the party’s former presidential nominee, shows no signs of letting go of the fight, making him the GOP’s go-to campaigner this fall, perhaps the most well-traveled surrogate of the midterm cycle.

Even though McCain may not draw the giant crowds the Clintons do -- the former president has been a particularly effective stand-in for the unpopular current one -- the Arizona senator appears to be covering more ground than rising Republican stars a generation younger.

Mitt Romney’s former running mate, Paul Ryan, has dipped into the midterms, as have future presidential hopefuls Ted Cruz and Rand Paul. But McCain has criss-crossed almost every battleground state this fall as part of his party’s effort to net the six seats needed to gain control of the Senate.

“I would ask just one thing of my fellow veterans,” he told the standing-room-only crowd at the American Legion hall in Covington, La., a bedroom community north of New Orleans. “You’ve been sent on many missions,” he went on. “I’m asking you for one thing. ... Call veterans in the state of Louisiana and get them out to vote.”

The stops have a familiar cadence to those who know McCain’s greatest hits. He jokes that after the 2008 presidential election, he “slept like a baby -- sleep two hours, wake up and cry.” And there’s his well-worn line about approval of Congress being so low, it’s down to “paid staff and blood relatives,” only to find out after a recent call with his mother, “we’re now down to paid staff.”

The McCain-isms always seem to excite the crowds even from his perch in the GOP establishment, which is often at odds with its tea party wing, as is the case in Louisiana where Cassidy is battling Republican Rob Maness, as well as Landrieu, in the state’s quirky open election system. Often, the senator is often the best part of the event, overshadowing the candidates as he is swarmed for selfies and loaded up with appreciation for his storied military service.

Over the years, McCain has made no secret of the fact that he remains partial to a fight, and this fall, he’s the one out punching before election day.

For the latest from Congress follow @LisaMascaro