Gannett News reporter Chuch Raasch reports from the road in South Carolina, where Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) was campaigning today instead of voting on the Iraq spending bill:

If Sen. John McCain thinks his “bomb bomb Iran” joke last week to the tune of the Beach Boys’ “Barbara Ann” is hurting him, he’s sure not letting on. He’s campaigning in South Carolina today and at both events, the Beach Boys’ “Barbara Ann” was played over the sound system as he was coming on stage. A tweak at his critics, who claim the joke showed McCain was too flip to be president, joking about bombing a country and all that?

McCain told Raasch later that the song was just “staff mischief,” but he “didn’t seem too perturbed about it.”