Huffington Post, one of the big-time blogs of the leftosphere, today has a video and a transcript of an interview with McCain on the subject of Karl Rove. The interview gets a little awkward when the reporter asks about Rove’s role in crafting a negative strategy for Bush to use against McCain in the 2000 South Carolina Republican primary. McCain’s response: He beat me. I certainly would be glad to get his advice. I don’t think I’d want to revisit how he did it. And I mean that. Not about South Carolina. I mean I don’t feel like reliving my defeat. The next question was, “His tactics don’t, you don’t disapprove of them? They don’t make you nervous?” The answer: It’s not so much whether I approve of his tactics or not. It’s that he has a very good, great political mind. Any information or advice and council he can give us, I’d be glad to have. I don’t think anybody denies his talents. So I’d be glad to get any advice and counsel. We would obviously decide whether to accept it or not. McCain is standing in the aisle of a campaign plane during the interview. He comes across as uncomfortable, but the circumstances of the interview are not exactly relaxed. One Democratic consultant e-mailed me that Rove is on the McCain payroll for direct mail. I do not have any confirmation of this. If it is true, it will certainly come out during the campaign.