'Maverick' may be his name…

…but it's sure as hell not his game. Jane's right, "If John McCain is going to be beaten in 2008, cracking open the McCain myth has to start now." Actually, it had to start a while back, and a few of us have been doing our bit, with little reminders like this...



…but it's an uphill battle. We're up against things like this lede, from the LA Times…

MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Sen. John McCain, who made his name as a Republican maverick, is going mainstream.

I've never gotten the 'maverick' thing regarding McCain. Except for his, in practical turns, minor dalliance with campaign reform issues, and some typical country-club grumbling about the budget, what's he actually done to deserve it? And moving mainstream? Like this...

McCain was nearly alone on Capitol Hill in defending the administration-approved ports deal involving a Dubai-owned company.

"Nearly alone" just doesn't sound that mainstream to me.

Or this..

He has eased his opposition to tax cuts that he once complained were excessive.

...in which he shifts from the mainstream position of, oh, 60 something percent or so of the American people, to the tax-cut extremism of Preznit 30something%.

Maybe it's his appeal to the most extreme factions of the Republican coalition...

He recently met with the Rev. Jerry Falwell, a leading evangelical conservative whom he previously had denounced as intolerant.

…or his partisan - if not racial - baiting of junior Senators...

To the delight of GOP partisans, he publicly lambasted Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois — a rising star among Democrats — over an ethics and lobbying overhaul.

…that signals his shift to the 'mainstream'?

The New York Times is a bit more clear about just what John McCain is, examining his "full embrace" of the President...

The extent of Mr. McCain's embrace of Mr. Bush was striking, and Republicans here suggested it reflected two political facts: that he needed to reassure conservatives of his loyalty to Mr. Bush, and that, at this point, he was in a strong enough position in this field to have flexibility in presenting himself.

I'm not sure where the 'flexibility' part comes in. Maybe it's that this year, McCain finds political advantage in matching his rhetoric to his record, which has always been that of a faithfully conservative Republican.

McCain has gone to great lengths to establish himself as a doctrinaire Bushista on far more grounds than he's ever been critical of the administration. Most recently...

Mr. McCain praised the president for his failed effort to rewrite the Social Security system, said he supported the decision to go into Iraq and blistered at critics who suggested the White House had fabricated evidence of unconventional weapons in Iraq to justify the invasion.

Let's see. For the war. For gutting Social Security. For the tax cuts. For foreign control of our borders. For the South Dakota abortion ban.

Oh yeah, some maverick.

John McCain, some public relations grandstanding aside, is the very model of a George Bush Republican. Like what we've got? You'll love what he'll give.

It's hardly a surprise, though.

After all, don't they share a liver or something?