NOW that he is the front-runner, the sudden rush to Senator John McCain's side in this year's Republican primary race is downright embarrassing.

At Grand Central Station in New York on Monday afternoon, the crush around the sometimes frail looking McCain was so intense that former Mayor Rudy Giuliani, former Governor George Pataki, Congress-man Pete King and former Senator Al D'Amato had to be practically pulled off the Arizona senator.

The gang of four was mouthing wonderful platitudes about McCain to beat the band. No doubt McCain felt he could float above the rush hour crowds after all the tributes were finished.

Call Me Al was touting former Senator Fred Thomson as a savior few weeks back. When that walking zombie collapsed Al jumped on the McCain bus. " My pal Al" McCain is reported to have said, heavy on the irony, when he heard. After all, they couldn't stand each other when they were in the Senate.

Then there was King, who must be feeling a little like the guy who lost his winning lottery ticket. Back in 2000 he alone of the New York delegation backed McCain against George W. Bush - a truly gutsy call at the time.

This time around King disagreed with McCain over immigration, but that seems forgotten now, as the anti-immigrant vote has all but vanished as an issue.

Pete had jumped on the Giuliani bandwagon early on, only to find the wheels coming off on its first exposure in Iowa and New Hampshire, followed by a complete breakdown last week in Florida, the so-called "firewall" state for "America's mayor."

Now Giuliani is sticking so close to McCain it seems he's daring the senator to name him as his vice presidential pick. Unless McCain is daft he won't pick the man who spent $64 million on this campaign and got one delegate to show for it. Republican voters showed their smarts in rejecting the 9/11 guru who turned out to be the ultimate one note Johnny.

Politics makes strange bedfellows indeed, and seeing D'Amato, Giuliani, King and Pataki flock to McCain's side just as he's poised to win the GOP nomination will not remove the reality that at least three of the four cannot stand each other.

Consider that Giuliani, while mayor, endorsed Mario Cuomo over his party colleague Pataki and you get some sense of the internal tension.

It's amazing what wining will do for you. The four surrounded McCain tighter than a tick in Grand Central and were, for all the world, the best of pals. What a joke!

Last summer the Irish Lobby for Immigration Reform (ILIR) held a fundraiser for McCain at an Irish restaurant in Manhattan in recognition of his extraordinary work on immigration reform.

The event raised over $100,000 for the candidate thanks to a concerted push and major support from leading Irish Americans such as Denis Kelleher, chairman of Wall Street Access.

Not a single politician could be rounded up to appear alongside McCain, however. At the time, the Arizona senator was as popular as rabies.

He had appeared at three different ILIR events, including a huge rally in the Bronx at St. Barnabas Church last year. His essential decency has endeared people to him in a way rare for politicians.

McCain's numbers at the time were tanking, though, and he was being widely written off. At one point it was even uncertain if the fundraiser would go ahead.

Al and Pete and George and Rudy were nowhere to be found. In fact they would not have come within an asses' roar of the place.

That's why it is great that members of ILIR such as Grant Lally and Jeff Cleary from Irish American Republicans, which endorsed McCain when it looked like he didn't have a chance and who stuck with him through thick and thin, are now being rewarded.

Their man has galloped through the field like Seabiscuit scattering the rest of the contenders like matchstick men. Of course the railbirds are all now jumping on.

Whatever the final result, the fall and rise of John McCain is one of the most heartening stories in modern American politics. Some times good guys do finish first.