The Villagers' favorite politician is making them all go back to their computers and rewrite their own stories that they've run for years, because i
April 5, 2010

The Villagers' favorite politician is making them all go back to their computers and rewrite their own stories that they've run for years, because in a Newsweek article about his recent campaign, he now refutes the idea that he was ever a Maverick at all.

Many of the GOP's most faithful, the kind who vote in primaries despite 115-degree heat, tired long ago of McCain the Maverick, the man who had crossed the aisle to work with Democrats on issues like immigration reform, global warming, and restricting campaign contributions. "Maverick" is a mantle McCain no longer claims; in fact, he now denies he ever was one. "I never considered myself a maverick," he told me. "I consider myself a person who serves the people of Arizona to the best of his abilities." Yet here was Palin, urging her fans four times in 15 minutes to send McCain the Maverick back to Washington.

Talk about political hackery. This ranks up there with the best of the best. Will the media start calling him Keating 5 McCain and be done with it?

The S&L scandal (The Keating 5) that he was involved with forced McCain to reinvent himself so he went the Mavericky route.

Steve Benen says it was a rebranding of McCain's image to the public because of how bad conservatives were viewed and I agree, but I believe he did this to survive politically in the eyes of the media after so many people lost their money and the government bailed out Lincoln's Savings to the tune of $2.8 billion.

Jonathan Alter made this point on Countdown during the general election:

ALTER: [Y]ou remember the Keating Five scandal that he was a part of, which, by the way, it's crazy but there's been very little about it in the press in the last few weeks. And McCain thinks he's getting a hard time, he's really getting a free ride on the fact that he was in the middle of the last great financial scandal in our country.

John "Keating 5" McCain is been kicked around by JD Hayworth and it's shown the depths politicians will sink in order to keep their power. But you know the media will keep booking him on their Sunday Talk Shows. They're addicted to the Maverick. They think they are being "balanced." Oy.

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