Holding The High Ground

John McCain wants to project an upbeat image about his uphill fight for the Republican presidential nomination.

The Arizona senator told CBS News' Face The Nation on Sunday that he's keeping his word about running no more negative campaign ads.

"That means for the rest of the campaign," said McCain. "Win or lose, I want my kids to be proud of the campaign we ran."

South Carolina's primary on February 19 is the next crucial contest in the GOP race for president. McCain and his rival, Texas governor George W. Bush, are in a statistical dead heat in recent polls.

"It's time we all got off of that. I'm off of that," said McCain about negative ads. "We're moving forward with positive ads, and I'm very happy to take the risk associated with it."

Still, that promise didn't restrain McCain from jabbing at Bush.

The senator said Bush needs to kick the negative campaigning habit - and urge his supporters to do the same.

Bush dismissed McCain's call to pull all negative ads, saying he reserves the right to defend himself.

The governor told NBC's Meet The Press on Sunday that a fight tests a candidate - promising to fight hard, but fair.

On Face The Nation, McCain alleged that negative phone calls from Bush backers to South Carolina residents labeling him a "liar, a cheat, and a thief" prompted the senator to make his positive campaign pledge.

"We know that people who are supporting Governor Bush's candidacy clearly are doing this. I hope he can prevail upon them - either in his own campaign or on others - to stop that."

But the senator offered no firm evidence that Bush campaign itself was behind any such calls.

"I'm really not even interested in who's doing it," he added. "What I'm interested in is us getting the campaign back to the level which the people of South Carolina deserve."

And Bush expressed concern on Sunday that Democrats are mobilizing to McCain in the South Carolina's open GOP primary.

"The only thing I'm concerned about is that Democrats flock into the Republican primary to decide who the Republican nominee is, and then head back for the Democrats in the general election," the governor said on Meet The Press.

But McCain told Face The Nation that Bush's allegation that some Democrats believe the senator would be the easier candidate to defeat in the general election in November "flies in the face of the facts", adding his message was attracting non-Republicans that the GOP needs in the general election.

Still, Bush and his surrogates claimed - without offering proof - that Democrats were trying to skew the results of the upcoming GOP primary, in which non-Republicans may vote.

Christian coalition founder Pat Robertson, a Bush supporter, alleged on Face The Nation that people who are allied with Vice President Al Gore "are indeed making telephone clls to try to encourage Democrats to vote in the Republican primary."

"I do think they're (the Democrats are) looking forward with some relish to the Keating Five scandal and some of the other things that's in Senator McCain's background," he added. "So I do think that they consider him a weaker candidate than Governor Bush."

Gore campaign spokesman Chris Lehane dismissed the similar claims by Bush, saying the Texas governor was "increasingly sounding like a rattled candidate."

"I would suggest that he focus on earning the support of Republicans in his own primary rather than worrying about what Democrats are doing," Lehane said.

What about McCain's ability to govern if he makes it to the White House? Bush has been endorsed by much of the GOP establishment, including most of the Republican senators on Capitol Hill who are McCain's colleagues. Could a President McCain actually get anything done in Washington if he's at odds politically with his own party?

"I'm ready to take them on," he said. "But if I get a mandate from the American people, they will obviously follow."

McCain added his support among independents and rank-and-file Republicans would enable him to forge a GOP-led coalition not seen since Ronald Reagan and Teddy Roosevelt.

"The Iron Triangle is trying to break me," he said about the special interests he claims to be fighting against.

"They're coming down by the bus load, attacking me in every possible way. But look, we're having fun. This is a great ride."