Wall Street Journal calls McCain out on new flip-flop claiming he is not a maverick

The Wall Street Journal has stepped into the fray, producing even more evidence that McCain used to consider himself a maverick, even though he now declare he is not:

Every so often a politician is quoted as saying something so surprising that it can stop you in your tracks.

Washington Wire had one of those moments today when we read the latest issue of Newsweek, which quotes Republican Arizona Sen. John McCain distancing himself from his well-established and long-nurtured national persona.

“I never considered myself a maverick,” McCain  told Newsweek. “I consider myself a person who serves the people of Arizona to the best of his abilities.”

The statement is stunning on many levels, not least of which because the maverick persona was hammered by the McCain-Palin ticket in the 2008 campaign and long-cultivated by the senator and his supporters years before his presidential bid.

Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin apparently didn’t get the maverick memo when she campaigned as recently as March 26 for McCain’s Senate re-election bid. “Send the maverick back to the United States Senate,” Palin declared. 

Click here for the full list of 8 times McCain has utilized the "maverick" label