Dinner with him is the best ticket in Washington: a wild ride of jokes and indiscretions all washed down with vodka rather than the diet soda preferred by most American politicians. (His judgments on the relative merits of John Kerry and Hillary Clinton are particularly worth hearing.) Even Mr McCain's support for the Iraq war has its upside.
Customers at restaurants and night clubs might order a carafe of sweetened cranberry juice, tonic water or soda beverages covered under the ban to mix with a bottle of vodka.