His iconoclastic path continued into the early Bush years.
He opposed the Bush tax cuts in 2001 and 2003. As chairman of the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs, he pursued lobbyist Jack Abramoff and his associates, who were accused of bilking tribes of millions of dollars -- a move that embarrassed some GOP lawmakers who had dealings with Abramoff. He also angered conservatives by working with Democrats in 2005 to stave off a Senate rule change favored by GOP leaders that would have eased the path of the administration's conservative judicial nominees.
But McCain's positioning for the 2008 race undercut that firebrand image. He now supports making the Bush tax cuts permanent. He has vowed to appoint conservative judges. And he gave the commencement speech at Falwell's college, Liberty University. "I do not believe in holding grudges in life or in politics," McCain said at the time.
"Around 2005 or so, he realized he was running for president and he made a calculated decision . . . he was going to do whatever was necessary to win this office," said Matt Welch, editor in chief of Reason magazine, whose book "McCain" is subtitled "The Myth of a Maverick."
Nonetheless, analysts say McCain still fits into a venerable tradition of legislators who tend to back their political party but will go against it on key issues. "A maverick doesn't mean you're always against your party," said Julian Zelizer, a history professor at Princeton University.
Zelizer pointed to the lingering distrust of McCain within the GOP. "So many Republicans just hate him because he doesn't play ball," he said. "That's the definition of what a maverick is."
Those resentments have created a delicate balancing act. McCain cannot denigrate Bush and GOP orthodoxy to the point that he alienates already-unenthused Republican voters. But he also must convince independents and conservative Democrats disillusioned by Bush's presidency that his outsider credentials are genuine.
"He needs to basically keep those two groups, who fundamentally hate each other's guts on every issue, behind him," Welch said.
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nicholas.riccardi@latimes.com
maeve.reston@latimes.com
Times staff writer Peter Nicholas contributed to this report.
