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This is close to the story that I heard from the McCain camp in '04. When Weaver left McCain in '01 or '02 (throughly discussed on FR) I thought it meant McCain was in his endgame and would not run for reelection. Weaver was point man on this and he may have been on the edge of, or beyond, McCain's understanding. Weaver was far more freewheeling than McCain on the unity idea.

McCain was looking for a groundswell of support from most of the Republicans, all of the independents and some of the Democrats for a center-right Unity third party or some variation thereof. A "McCain coalition" something like the Reagan coalition. It didn't happen. It may in 4 or 8 years but McCain's time has run out.

Sorry, the link is subscribers only. The full article came up when I googled, looking for it.

Anyway, McCain and Weaver were looking to build a populist coalition. The meetings were real but didn't fit McCain's plan. McCain threw his support to Bush.