01:00 AM EDT on Tuesday, June 20, 2006

When Arizona Sen. John McCain, stumping for Sen. Linc Chafee, addressed an Exeter picnic last Saturday, he began by playing off Don Carcieri's presence on the platform:

"There's a story about two guys in the state prison, in the chow line, and this one guy turns to the other guy and says, 'Food was a lot better in here when you were governor.' "

Huge laughter and applause.

Later, I asked if McCain was aware that a former Rhode Island governor, Ed DiPrete, actually did go to jail. "No, I didn't know that," he chuckled.

McCain, a Vietnam war hero who sought the Republican presidential nod in 2000 and is deemed a 2008 favorite, goes over well here because of his patter, patriotism and passion, and, though conservative, he's not a looney tune right-winger.

Warren Councilman Chris Stanley can't wait for McCain to run again. "It would be good for the nation," he told me at the picnic on a farm that for generations has been in the family of Chafee's wife, the former Stephanie Danforth.

McCain says he won't decide on an '08 bid until early next year. But House Minority Leader Bob Watson, who chaired his winning 2000 primary drive here, said McCain has lined him up to be state chairman again.

Saturday's speeches painted the moderate Chafee as differing from, yet working well with, other solons and as principled: Ignore those attack ads against him by GOP primary foe Steve Laffey and the conservative Cranston mayor's ally, Washington's Club for Growth.

Chafee spoke of getting funds for a Warwick rail station and demolishing the old Jamestown Bridge. He said you can crow, "He got things done!"

Chafee said he and McCain are "mavericks," a cowboy term for unbranded calves. "We are not branded by anybody. We are not owned by anybody. No Club for Growth owns us. . . . We are there to work for Arizona, to work for Rhode Island, to work for America and to work for our planet."

McCain joined in denouncing the Club for Growth's strident advertising effort: "I don't think that that's exactly what American politics should be all about, and why don't we have a little less of the negative and a little more of the positive?"

Of course, Chafee's ads slam Laffey. Chafee told me, "Well, we point out the record. . . ."

McCain prides himself on "straight talk," though it's not always so straight. After losing the 2000 South Carolina primary to George Bush, he went back and apologized for not having called for removing the Confederate battle flag from the state capitol. He said he feared that telling the truth, instead of ducking, would have assured defeat. I wondered Saturday how that speech went over with his fellow pols. He told me, "My friends said, 'Good thing.' My enemies said, you know, 'What's the point?' " He laughed, "They were both right!"

Saturday also offered a chance to see Trapper, Chafee's handsome dark bay 21-year-old thoroughbred, whose father, Cannonade, won the 1974 Kentucky Derby. Trapper's own career, running under the name of Koko's Wish, was less glitzy. According to the Jockey Club, he raced 15 times in 1987-89, mostly at Suffolk Downs and Rockingham Park. He won three times, was 2nd three times and 3rd once, for total earnings of $19,328.

Chafee, a former professional blacksmith, told me he paid $2,500 for him in 1990. He happened upon Trapper in Tiverton when he was looking to buy. "As soon as I opened the stall door I said, 'Wow, that's a good-looking horse!' "

Trapper's racing days are a distant memory, of course. "I just trail ride him," Chafee says.

M. Charles Bakst is The Journal's political columnist.

mbakst@projo.com / (401) 277-7638