Gephardt seeks McCain's help

WASHINGTON -- From his Capitol office, House Democratic Leader Dick Gephardt put in a call to Republican Sen. John McCain, the godfather of campaign finance legislation.

The bill aimed at reducing the role of money in politics was on the House floor and in trouble.

Critical Republican votes needed to defeat an amendment by GOP leaders hostile to the bill had all but disappeared. Supporters of the House measure named for Reps. Christopher Shays, R-Conn., and Martin Meehan, D-Mass., "weren't prepared for the confusion" of battle, one lawmaker later lamented.

McCain, who had heard similar accounts from others, left his office and set up shop in a small room on the House side of the Capitol. There, he sought to reassure GOP supporters, "to find out ... if we had a problem, what we were doing, and to try to get them back," recalled one official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.