McCain wins backing of House Republicans

By Andy Sullivan

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republican House of Representative leaders publicly backed presidential front-runner John McCain on Wednesday as he promised to campaign in all 50 U.S. states to help his party win back control of the chamber.

One day after winning primaries in Virginia, Maryland and the District of Columbia, the Arizona senator met with House leaders in an effort to unite the party behind his all-but-certain nomination.

"I intend to campaign, if I'm the nominee of the party, to campaign in every state of the union," McCain said.

McCain has had a sometimes-rocky relationship with his Republican colleagues in the U.S. Congress and has struggled to win over conservatives who have been angered by his efforts to rein in congressional spending, curb the influence of money in politics and overhaul immigration laws.

"I've had some disagreements with Senator McCain over the years, but I've got to tell you, I've watched this presidential race unfold and I've watched John McCain be a strong advocate for principles that I believe in," said Ohio Rep. John Boehner, the House Republican leader, citing his support for the Iraq war and anti-abortion stance.

The Senate's top Republican, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, led an effort to overturn McCain's signature campaign finance law in the Supreme Court.

"They don't speak to me. I'm an outcast and a pariah," McCain joked when asked about his reception in the Senate after a long stretch on the campaign trail.

Even after McCain all but wrapped up the nomination with coast-to-coast primary victories last week and swept the three primaries in the nation's capital region on Tuesday, his top remaining rival Mike Huckabee won two out of three contests last Saturday.

"I believe this contest is over and I think it's produced the best possible nominee for us to take back the House," said House Republican Whip Roy Blunt, of Missouri.

McCain has missed 55 percent of all Senate votes since Congress went into session in January 2007, second only to South Dakota Democratic Sen. Tim Johnson, who has been recovering from a brain hemorrhage, according to a Washington Post analysis.

Illinois Sen. Barack Obama and New York Sen. Hillary Clinton, the remaining Democratic presidential candidates, have missed 38 percent and 26 percent of Senate votes respectively during that period, according to the Post.

McCain said the improving political situation in Iraq would help him take on Obama or Clinton in the November election. Both Democrats oppose the war.

One Obama backer, Hawaii Democratic Rep. Neil Abercrombie, called McCain's Iraq stance "dim-witted political hyperbole."

"Such simplistic posturing is worse than useless," he said. "It's dangerous. It's a deliberate assault on critical dialogue and a failure to engage in serious examination of the questions that the president and the Congress will have to ask as we try to think our way through to a new strategy."

(Editing by Doina Chiacu)