As I witness a stream of election year attacks hurled at my friend John McCain, sometimes I wonder whom the pundits and the partisans are referring to when they talk about the man with whom I’ve proudly served in both the U.S. House and Senate for 26 years.

While opponents work to distort Sen. McCain’s positions, the facts aren’t on their side. Throughout his career, as I’ve witnessed firsthand, John McCain has always put his country first: ahead of his party, ahead of his president and ahead of his personal interests.

There aren’t many in Washington like John McCain, who has displayed numerous acts of political courage. And I’ve repeatedly seen him stand up to the entrenched power brokers and political insiders.

When many lobbyists in Washington crossed the lines of the law, John McCain was a leading voice in the effort to shine a spotlight on corruption. He launched an investigation into the now disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff, who was one of Washington’s most powerful insiders – and who has since been sentenced to prison.

Sen. McCain was a leader in the fight to secure meaningful lobbyist reform. Working across party lines, he was a powerful advocate for requiring that lobbyists disclose additional, critical information regarding their activities. As a result of his leadership, businesses and the lobbyists they employ have experienced a decline in their influence in the halls of Congress. And now, in the aftermath of unconscionable and outrageous greed and malfeasance that precipitated the historic financial crisis imperiling our economy, you can be assured there will be no one more dogged than John McCain in fighting corruption on Wall Street as he has in Washington.

I also well recall, when our system of paying for elections had become broken, how John McCain had the courage to stand up and lead the charge for reform. To say that changing the role of money in politics wasn’t exactly popular would be an understatement. Sen. McCain and I faced sharp criticism from many in our party who resisted even modest changes to the status quo.

But John McCain was undeterred. He joined with Democratic Sen. Russell Feingold to pass a bill that banned soft money and stopped special interest groups from using corporate or union treasury money to broadcast ads just before an election. And whenever a federal candidate states they’ve approved a television commercial, that’s because they are required to do so by his historic McCain-Feingold legislation I was proud to help pass in the Senate.

How unhappy was the Republican Party that McCain was able to pass campaign finance reform? Let’s just say they fought the law all the way to the Supreme Court.

In 2005, Senate business nearly came to a halt over judicial nominations. Many Republicans sought votes to approve nominees for federal judgeships. With Democrat filibusters preventing these men and women from receiving consideration, the GOP leadership was prepared to upend traditional parliamentary rules to force floor votes. Senseless partisanship in both parties had resulted in a bitter stalemate that threatened the institution itself.

But John McCain recognized that Republicans and Democrats would have to work together to develop a compromise. That’s when he led the bipartisan “Gang of 14” senators in identifying common ground. Under a plan he helped forge, seven Republicans agreed to not support changes in how the Senate forestalls a filibuster; seven Democrats committed to abandoning efforts to filibuster some nominees.

Let me be clear: John McCain’s actions directly contradicted the wishes of his party’s leadership. But that didn’t stop McCain. As always, he placed the needs of his country first.

John McCain is exactly the type of leader we require to make government work for the people of Maine and America. Take it from me, he is the only candidate we can truly trust to challenge the special interests and deliver real change. Working with Sarah Palin, John McCain will bring a reform agenda to the White House that will truly change how business is conducted in Washington. I look forward to being part of it.

Olympia J. Snowe is Maine’s senior senator.