Maverick's Ass Writing Checks His Body Can't Cash

John McCain's gambit at the Southern Republican Leadership Conference to call for supporters to write in George Bush's name in the straw poll is getting decidedly mixed reviews. The press has always been McCain's most loyal constituency, and they were the ones who were building a cult of inevitability around his nomination. This lurch towards the President, who is at his lowest ebb nationally AND in the eyes of the media, simply does not compute with their beloved notions of a "maverick."

Adam Nagourney called McCain's embrace of Bush "striking."

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.

Mr. McCain went so far as to condemn the collapse of the port deal, saying that Congress had served Mr. Bush poorly by not permitting a 45-day review of security concerns, though he did not mention that the deal was sunk by fellow Republicans.

"The president deserved better," Mr. McCain said.

That Nagourney would go out of his way to call McCain on his misrepresentation is something I find "striking."

(Incidentally, in the same article Lindsay Graham was quoted as saying "He's [the President] right about Social Security." Let's not forget this quote.)

Janet Hook and Mark Barabak, writing in the LA Times, call him "Lone Wolf McCain" and suggest that the maverick is going mainstream.

Even as he has picked high-profile fights with Bush over military interrogation tactics and with congressional colleagues over pork-barrel spending, McCain has been quietly courting GOP power brokers, emphasizing his loyalty to the president and burnishing his conservative credentials on litmus-test issues.

McCain was nearly alone on Capitol Hill in defending the administration-approved ports deal involving a Dubai-owned company. He has eased his opposition to tax cuts that he once complained were excessive.

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

McCain's speech in Memphis mixed his trademark blunt talk with a restatement of his credentials as a fiscal conservative.

He began by reiterating his defense of the Bush administration's approval of a ports deal with a United Arab Emirates company. After bipartisan protest, the company retreated from its U.S. plans.

"The president deserved better," McCain said to scattered applause.

The article highlights flip-flopping in an unflattering way and tries to show that his view on the ports deal was unpopular ("scattered applause"). Then they went out of their way to dampen his support:

Overall, the reception was warm, not wildly enthusiastic.

"There's no question he has made progress in the last year in softening some of the animosity that remained from the 2000 election," said Q. Whitfield Ayres, a veteran Southern Republican strategist, who heard McCain's speech. "But he's not over the hurdle yet."

The result: McCain has a steep hill to climb on his right. Influential televangelist Pat Robertson said last year in a television interview, "McCain I'd vote against under any circumstance."

Conservative activist Grover Norquist, who heads Americans for Tax Reform, is suspicious of the Arizonan's recent embrace of tax cuts and other issues. "It's like an alcoholic not drinking for a day," said Norquist. "No one trusts that this is something he is going to stick with."

These are articles that simply wouldn't be written if there was an air of inevitablility. ABC's "This Week" provided a similar narrative, with practically the entire panel (save George Will, who still seems to think supporting the President is a "good thing" for voters) engaging in open mockery of McCain. This was to be expected, somewhat, from Donna Brazile, the "Democrat" on the panel, who said that this lurch towards Bush looked dishonest. But I was surprised to see Claire Shipman and the other guy (Time magazine writer, I forget his name) join in, the guy bringing up McCain's quote on South Dakota's abortion law and saying "Give me a break, nobody believes this from him."

The press played cabana boy to McCain's wealthy socialite ever since 2000. His entire popularity is based on this chummy relationship with the Beltway media. They fawn all over him in article after article, and the message is sent that this is a maverick with independent beliefs. If they abandon him, he's done as a candidate. The Bushites already don't trust him, and now the independents are getting the message that he's left them as well.

Prediction? I don't think we'll see McCain even get to New Hampshire, at this rate.