Mavericks go their own way. The term originated with Samuel Maverick, a 19th century Texas rancher who refused to brand his cattle; unbranded strays came to be called mavericks. Political mavericks also wear no man’s brand. The term became firmly embedded in political folklore with the arrival in Washington of Samuel Maverick’s grandson, Maury Maverick Sr., an outrageously independent Congressman in the 1930’s. --- continued below the fold: Maverick
John McCain has lived his life as a willful rogue who runs against the grain. He speaks affectionately of his wasted years at the Naval Academy as a rounder and party hound. McCain fit in with the "top gun" jet fighters, who risked all and took on danger. He survived.
He was shot down, he was a prisoner, he survived. McCain came home and became a rube. He was repeatedly unfaithful to his wife who suffered his years in Vietnam's prisons with grace and forbearance.
McCain acknowledges these things. But does this mind-set, this kind of life, lived out against his high privilege and sufferance as the son and grandson of highly respected military officers qualify for greatness.
Should father’s history have given McCain such a pass on his character flaws?
Just being a maverick, as McCain self-identifies, does not imply high character or nobler ambitions. Going against the grain can be a kind of narcotic, a psychological signal of something less reliable and undependable at time when what most Americans want in our leader of the free world, and the president of the 50 states--Statesmanship.
McCain's legendary ill-temper, his high stakes gambling obsession, coming from whatever source, his serial adultery, are cracks in McCain’s credentials for high leadership.
We ought to think long on McCain’s flaws and consider what it may mean in the balance of judgment and even-handedness needed to face the near overwhelming challenges posed by a failed administration of a spendthrift and dilatorious George W. Bush, who has lead the nation to the brink of ruin and disaster in so many areas of our national life-- especially the monumental national debt, the long wars, and the crippled economy.
We are enduring the end of the Frat Boy era, do we need or what a new era of the Maverick and the Gambler?
Maverick Continued from above the fold...Legend has it that one fine Sunday morning Maury Maverick, an outspoken liberal, showed up at a straight-laced Episcopal church in San Antonio. "Why uh, Mr. Maverick," a woman parishioner greeted him sweetly, "I’m so happy to see you here. I’ve never wanted to believe all those stories that you’re a Communist."
"By the same token, madame," Mr. Maverick replied, "I’ve never believed all that gossip that you’re nothing but a street whore."
Modern-day Mavericks, rarely so breathtakingly blunt, are a mixed bag. They include free spirits, loners, idealistic reformers and rogues. They tend to be their own worst enemies. They often walk fine lines of principle that only they discern. They often champion foredoomed causes. Yet, stubbornly, they refuse to change. Probably they couldn’t change if they wanted to.
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"Cada hombre tiene su tema. Every man has is own peculiar theme. " Cada chango a sue mecate. Every monkey to his own swing."
And it is true. Even the dullest members of Congress, including the old men who regularly fall asleep at committee meetings, do have themes uniquely their own. Even in this increasingly homogenized Congress, where more and more members look like bank clerks, each member does have his own peculiar obsessions. What sets the mavericks apart is that they themes are more peculiarly peculiar.
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Colleagues tend to accept mavericks more easily if...they offset their principles with a certain zaniness.
Excepted from:Capitol Hill Strays, Spiritual Descendants of Old Sam Maverick Enliven Congress: A mixed bag of politicians, reformers and rogues, thrive on independence, By Dennis Farney,11/12/81, The American Character: Views of America from The Wall Street Journal, Edited by Donald Moffitt