enator John McCain, former presidential candidate for the Republican nomination, favorite son of the party's moderate wing, and a man given to mea culpas, will deliver an especially big apology today.
The Arizona senator, making his first return visit to South Carolina since he gave up his bid for the nomination, will admit his regret that, during his campaign, he did not speak truthfully about the controversy over the Confederate flag flying atop the state Capitol in Columbia, aides said.
He said then that he viewed the flag flap as a local matter that a presidential contender should not intrude upon. He also said he considered the flag a symbol of Southern ''heritage.''
But now that the voting is long over and his presidential bid is behind him, McCain will admit that he considers the flag an offensive symbol that should come down.
Aides said he would make that point emphatically today, though the senator himself declined to preview his remarks. McCain would say only that he would be delivering an address ''about reform in South Carolina, and I intend to comment on the flag.''
McCain built the early success of his candidacy out of what he termed ''Straight Talk.'' At the end of every town hall meeting, he would promise voters, ''I'll always tell the truth, no matter what.''
It was a lofty claim that invariably drew loud cheers and applause. Now, McCain's political director John Weaver said, it will also guarantee that the senator will come in for his fair share of criticism for his turnabout on the flag issue.
''There will be some lumps associated with it and well-deserved,'' Weaver said. ''On one issue only did we violate the principle [of straight talk], and that was that one.''
McCain will deliver his remarks at a Columbia function sponsored by the South Carolina Public Policy Foundation, a conservative organization, Weaver said.
The senator's reversal, which aides privately say is purely a matter of conscience for McCain, is likely to further cement his image as a more moderate Republican. It will also probably put extra pressure on his former rival and the presumptive Republican nominee, Texas Governor George W. Bush, who may be called upon to choose between the conservative South Carolinians who swept him to victory on Feb. 19, and more moderate voters who see the flag as a symbol of racism and slavery.
''It places a type of pressure on George W. Bush to do the same,'' said Bill Moore, professor of political science at the College of Charleston. ''As soon as John McCain makes that statement, reporters will turn to Bush and say, `What about you?' It places the limelight not on John McCain but on George Bush.''
Before the South Carolina primary, discerning the senator's true feelings on the Confederate flag was almost impossible. Most of the time, he refused to enter the fray, repeatedly voicing his apparent conviction that the matter was best left to the state to decide.
While that response brought him cheers and applause at town hall meetings, pundits and civil rights activists pilloried him and Bush, who adopted a similar line about the flag.
That effect was compounded when McCain made inconsistent statements on his view of the flag's significance, calling it on occasion a ''a symbol of racism and slavery,'' but more commonly just ''a symbol of heritage.''
The issue was so sensitive with South Carolina voters that the candidate, normally quick with off-the-cuff responses to sticky questions, took to reading a statement summarizing his views whenever asked about the flag. He remained distinctly uncomfortable when talk on his bus - dubbed the Straight Talk Express - turned to the flag, making him eager to shift subjects at the earliest opportunity.
Bush, whose success in South Carolina hung on his powerful appeal among registered Republicans and conservative voters generally, also maintained that the issue was for South Carolinians to decide. He refused to be drawn into discussions of the flag's symbolism, though he did tell one television interviewer that he would not fly the flag over the Texas State House.
Vice President Al Gore and former senator Bill Bradley, the Democratic contenders at the time, both denounced the symbolism of the Confederate flag and the Republicans' failure to take a strong stand on the issue. Bradley was particularly forceful on this score, criticizing both Republican candidates as ''ignoring a hateful, shameful past in an effort to bottom-fish for voters'' from the party's right wing.
Since he bowed out of the race March 9, McCain has maintained a high public profile, forming a political action committee to continue pushing his pet issue of campaign finance reform, and making public appearances with Republican candidates for office, including New York City Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani, who is running for a US Senate seat against Hillary Rodham Clinton.
He has also continued to voice his trademark campaign theme - that the Republican Party should be more inclusive.
The flag issue is cresting in South Carolina. On April 12, the South Carolina state Senate voted 36 to 7 to remove the flag from above the State House, and relocate it to a nearby Confederate soldiers monument. While the NAACP still opposes the relocation, and approval for the compromise in the House is uncertain, McCain will make his comments in far more hospitable surroundings today than he faced in February.
''He's a politician,'' said Ron Walters, professor of political science at the University of Maryland. ''And what politicians do is catch up to public opinion, and in this case the public opinion in the state has forced the Legislature to change its mind.''
Specialists speculated on McCain's motives yesterday.
''By John McCain coming out, it puts tremendous pressure on Bush to do so,'' Walters said, adding that McCain seemed to be positioning himself for a future run, in case Bush loses to Gore in November.
''He wouldn't want that on his record,'' Walters said. ''He would want to clean up something like that.''
''McCain pushed [Bush] to the right,'' said Robert Lieberman, professor of political science at Columbia University. If Bush loses to Gore because he is seen as too close to conservative Republicans, he said, ''then McCain becomes if not the heir apparent, then certainly the leading national Republican who is set up to avoid that problem.''
Bush spokesman Ari Fleischer would not be drawn into a discussion of such issues yesterday.
''It is Senator McCain's prerogative to do and say as he wishes,'' Fleischer said. ''The governor's position is principled and consistent, and he is pleased now that the people of South Carolina are deciding what to do with the flag.''
Whit Ayres, a Republican pollster based in Atlanta, said McCain's reversal probably would not hurt him even in South Carolina were he to consider another run for the nomination in 2004.
''So many things [will happen] between now and then, I doubt if it'll have a long-term impact,'' he said. ''Particularly since political events seem to be moving toward a resolution.''
